In Carrie Fisher’s final memoir, The Princess Diarist, the late actress revealed that she was involved in an affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Fisher, who was a naïve 19-year-old at the time, was instantly attracted to 33-year-old Ford who was married to Mary Marquardt and has two children.
Fisher said that they spent their first night together after a birthday party for George Lucas. “I looked over at Harrison. A hero’s face—a few strands of hair fell over his noble, slightly furrowed brow,” she wrote. “How could you ask such a shining specimen of a man to be satisfied with the likes of me?”
“I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him,” Fisher continued. “He was kind.”
When Fisher’s book was published, her three-month affair with Ford was all anyone was talking about. She explained that she gave the actor a heads up about the chapter. “I wouldn’t have ambushed him like that, but it’s still—no matter if I told him or not, it probably feels like an ambush,” she told Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air. “It feels like an ambush to me, and I’m the one that wrote it.” So, she spoke to him in person about revealing their 40-year-old affair. “I said, ‘I found the journals that I kept during the first movie, and I’m probably going to publish them. And he just sort of raised his finger and said, ‘Lawyer!’ Then I said, ‘No, I won’t write anything that you don’t want. I mean, I’ll show it to you before and you can take anything out that you want taken out. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable’—which I, of course, have. Unduly uncomfortable.”
Ford remained silent during her book promotion, despite several requests for comment from various outlets. The 75-year-old actor released a statement following Fisher’s death in December, reminiscing the moments they shared but did not specify their romantic time together.
In the recent interview with GQ, Ford finally addresses Fisher’s memoir. “It was strange. For me,” he revealed in the outlet’s October’s issue.
When asked if he was given any warning as Fisher claimed, “Um, to a degree. Yes,” Ford said, adding that he doesn’t know what to think about it. “You know, with Carrie’s untimely passing, I don’t really feel that it’s a subject that I want to discuss.”
The actor also refused to discuss whether he wished Fisher has kept their affair private. Ford also said that he did not read the actress’ book.
