I’m sure when this news dropped yesterday, many Star Wars nerds needed to take a moment so their Jabba boners could subside. “I love you,” Carrie Fisher said to Harrison Ford. “I know,” he replied. IT STILL GETS ME. Yes, I might have had a Jabba (lady)boner too. So, Carrie Fisher broke the news yesterday – during filming on Star Wars, she had a months-long affair with Harrison Ford. She was 19 years old at the time (meaning it was during filming on A New Hope) and Harrison was 33. And married! But they were Leia and Han, all day and night. Dirty Star Wars sex.
Carrie Fisher is finally going public with a secret she has guarded closely for 40 years: When she was 19, she and Harrison Ford, then a 33-year-old married father of two, had a whirlwind three-month affair while filming the original Star Wars in 1976.
“It was so intense,” the actress-author, 60, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the real-life romance die-hard fans of the franchise have wished for since Han Solo and Princess Leia captured hearts on-screen. “It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend.”
After stumbling on often angst-ridden journals she kept while filming on location in London, she felt the time had come to open up about the formative experience. “It’s been 40 years,” explains Fisher, who went on to write The Princess Diarist, excerpted exclusively in this week’s issue.
After spending their first night together following a birthday party for director George Lucas, Fisher was wracked by self-doubt.
“I looked over at Harrison. A hero’s face — a few strands of hair fell over his noble, slightly furrowed brow,” she writes. “How could you ask such a shining specimen of a man to be satisfied with the likes of me?”
Although their unlikely romance took Fisher by complete surprise and ran its course once the film wrapped, she remembers the time fondly.
“I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him,” she says. “He was kind.”
Yeah, you youngsters forget this, but for like two decades straight, Harrison Ford was the sexiest guy around. He was an Everyman, but there was some heat to it too. Every woman wanted to bang him. I am a little bit surprised that Harrison and Carrie’s affair was during the first film and not, say, The Empire Strikes Back (that one would just seem more fitting).
As for how Harrison, uh, performed in the sack, reportedly Carrie writes that he was somewhat underwhelming, but she let it slide because “he was really handsome.” She also said their first time involved Harrison getting her drunk on wine in Tunisia. She was very much in love with him and she wished he would fall in love with her. And she says that their summer of love is rather fuzzy because she was pretty stoned throughout. Girl, that’s why you don’t smoke weed when you’re banging Hot Young Harrison!
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
I am not sure if it makes me cringe or if I want to know more!
LOL- so much this!
I know I was thinking “Wow that’s so hot!” Then read “Married father of two…she was 19” and then it was kind of “ohhhhh that’s cringe-inducing. She was way too young”
Totally agree. Why did she have to blab after all this time? Tacky, tacky, tacky…
Jealous. That is all.
He was certainly hotter than hell, but it’s disappointing to learn that he was a cheatin’ d-bag.
+1
He’s always been known to be a cheater – i believe that’s why his first wife divorced him. He’s on wife no. 3.
Dang, I didn’t know that. Soooo disappointing! Like him quite a bit less now…
He cheated on the 2nd one too which is why that marriage tanked as well. Allegedly😉. I know it’s considered an old-fashioned notion, but it makes me think less of them TBH. I don’t particularly find it cute even forty years later. Excusers always seem to deliberately forget that there were loving, trusting partners and families at home who probably were deeply, deeply hurt by selfish actions. Also, he got her drunk before bedding her the first time huh? Forty years later that just sounds creepy.
I mean- how uncomfortable and confusing must it have been for a blinky eyed 19 year old to have bad sex with a man telling herself, “well, he is very handsome”. That just feels rape-y to me. I guess that’s a strong description, but un-damn-fortunately we’ve all been used by a man for “his” pleasure sexually. In retrospect we just were too naive or intimidated to speak up for our needs. So yuck. This slice of history leaves me feeling trumped.
awww. I feel sorry for his wife. When a spouse cheats, it’s devastating and sad. So I assume she was home looking after the kids and he was dipping his wick at work. I hope she at least got a decent settlement when they divorced.
So a 33 year old married, father of two got a 19 year old woman drunk and than had sex with her? That sounds real suspect and creepy to me. I don’t get why she reminiscing about a crappy lay, but she was high through the whole thing so between the drug and nostalgia haze I guess she’s thinks this was some kind of cute meet.
I am sure those two, now adult, children are loving having to hear about the time he cheated on their mother, but whatever sells books I suppose.
I don’t know if you are aware but Carrie Fisher has at least one best-selling semi autobiographical novel and she succeeded without having to name drop that sleezy old man. Besides if his kids have a problem with it, they should take it up with their father. Carrie wasn’t just “barely legal”. She was a drug addict already showing the signs of bipolar and famously struggling to rebuild her relationship with her own scummy cheater of a father. And Harrison wasn’t just married with two young kids, he was in his thirties. She shouldn’t have to cover for his pathetic ass.
Yeah… kind agree with this. Take away that it’s Harrison Ford/Han Solo and… it’s kinda pathetic. Older,married father of 2 cheats with relatively inexperienced teenager- gets her drunk and high while doing so. Nice. Although, standard disclaimers apply? It’s Hollywood and it was the 70s so sh*t happens? Still a little Meh
I’m scratching my head a little. Is she trying to frame this as a “meet cute” moment? Are we all supposed to go “awwww” or something? Extended side-eye to the both of them.
I know…I’m not sure how to feel about it. I really like both of them and loved Han/Leia, but take away who they are and substitute regular people, and it’s kind of icky.
I think Carrie stopped giving a single fuck years ago. Like she basically is just telling a story, I don’t think she cares how people perceive it one way or another
More more more! Thank goodness, distraction!
I used to think he was hot, until I heard all the reports of what a bad kisser he was. That’s a deal breaker.
Didn’t she seemingly deny this through a tweet? Then again, I don’t find the it that hard to believe. It was the 70s, both were probably doing drugs and isolated on set, and it seemed all of Hollywood was either having affairs, open relationships, or sleeping with other people in Hollywood back in the old days (they still probably do, tbh).
Edited: the alcohol bit makes Ford sound a little suspect….
My first thought when I saw this this morning was “I could have lived very nicely without knowing that.” I love Carrie Fisher, but some things are better left unsaid. (Betting Harrison Ford’s two formerly small children feel exactly the same way.)
I have zero respect for people who write kiss and tells.
I also have zero respect for cheaters and for those who pursue people who are already in a relationship.
Paolanqar, I agree. They both look very bad for this, but she looks worse because she doesn’t even have enough compassion to spare the ex-wife humiliation and the children distress. This is a very tacky act from someone who I can only think of now as a nasty piece of work.
He got her drunk and took advantage and you’re pissy about her actions…. alright. That’s cute.
It’s weird because on the one hand, I love some dirty gossip once in a while but this I did not need to know.
I don’t want anyone to spoil the fantasy either. 80’s Harrison Ford is hot af and I only recently discovered that. Maybe I had to be in my 30s to appreciate it. No more kiss and tell!
Considering she said he had underwhelming skills, he might agree with leaving some things unsaid haha.
I hated that line. it seemed egotistical and game playing at 14, still seems so now
I also found out Carrie was addicted to coke and he was married. Also 19 and 33. She wrote in her diary she hoped he would leave his wife for her. He did not.
I wish people would stop with the tell alls(tell too much). It just seems tacky to me. If, after everyone is gone, a biographer digs it all up, fine, but in cases like this I shudder.
I couldn’t agree more. How is this going to make his children feel? Carrie Fisher is just stoking her ego, with the added bonus that it will sell more books. It make me sick.
There’s always been rumours of them hooking up and she’s hinted at it over the years. It was reported that there was a love triangle on the set; Mark was into Carrie, she was into Harrison and Harrison was into Carrie.
That love triangle would be so much more fun if Harrison was into Mark
OMG i was just about to say that!!!! haha HAWT
Mark deserves better then lame dick and bad kissing.
@Ariadne agreed
you go girl!
Pretty sure you’d be shouting something else if this were your husband or father at the time. Don’t care how hot they were 30yrs ago…shitty distrustful people. Blah.
Siiiggghhhh. Harrison Ford. Then, now and forever.
It shows how young she was that her 19 y.o. self felt unworthy of this cheating dbag.
Isn’t that the truth? And when you hear other young women say they feel unworthy of some older man, you really want to shake them.
She probably felt unworthy for the same reasons she over looked his lack of skills in bed because he was handsome.
He was soooo hot. He was my celebrity crush all through the 80’s. Too bad this story makes him seem like an ass. I’d rather not know.
I think the movie Witness was peak Harrison for me. So hot.
Me, too. 💔💔😩
Harrison reminds me of Gary Cooper (I am a classic movie person). Gary and Patricia Neal had a long-running affair that caused a lot of grief for his family. I still like both as actors, but would rather be in the dark about their private lives.
“Harrison reminds me of Gary Cooper”
No, no. 1000x no. Not even close.
It’s the persona, not anything else. The Everyman quality.
Gary Cooper, in his youth, was NOT the Everyman. Where do you live if someone as hot as a young Gary Cooper is the “everyman”? I want to move there!
Really??? I never found him attractive!
it’s one of the worst stories ever lol. first of all dude was married and had children, secondly she was very young and drunk, and last but not least he was a horrible lay. why is she speaking about it now?? it sounds like the sort of thing i’d want to brush under the carpet and never remember ever.
Carrie always tells too much eventually. I hated all the dirty laundry about Debbie. Tell it to your shrink.
19, drunk and stoned, romanced by a grown, married man. Nope, not romantic; predatory and gross.
Predatory and gross.
I’d imagine back then a lot of women would have considered that a romantic situation and let themselves be treated that way. Or let themselves settle for that. Many probably still would settle. We think about ourselves differently today, although we are in for a h3ll of a backlash in the coming years.
Ummm, yuck? Married father had an affair with an intoxicated girl 15 years younger? Nothing appealing or even amusing about that. Wish it wasn’t confirmed but he’s always been a bit gross, it just used to be hidden better.
the banalization of tell-all at whatever costs is bugging me. Married 33 year old having an affair with a 19 year old even today is something I don’t get. I’m disappointed that she wrote about it. i don’t know what his kids are thinking about this. Andy Cohen is releasing a tell-all book with more gossip from the drain (I underestimated Cohen celebrity among celebrities status.) In a way he’s Ryan Seacrest but loves to dish and dish and stir more reactions so he can store more gossips. so his tell all and Fisher’s feels like garbage.
Who could blame her..
I blame him.
Me too. She was still barely legal in my eyes. He was a grown married man with kids. Wisdom is supposed to come with age. She’s awful for bragging about it as a grown woman. She should have the perspective now that it was wrong!
I kind of wish she had kept this one to herself. I think less of both them now-cheating isn’t funny or romantic.
As a celebrity gossip fan this story is vintage gossip gold, but the more you think about it the more gross it’s gets. I had an affair with a married 36 year old man when I was 18 (I thought I was so grown up SMH) and it messed me up for a long time afterwards. He was really good looking with a young family and we had a 2 year affair. Like I said it messed me up and has had repercussions in later relationships. I don’t blame Carrie, she was living in a fantasy, blame Harrison as he was the “adult” with life experience.
Agree completely. He seems predatory and gross.
@Sarah I relate so much. I had a really similar experience. I was 18 and got involved with a 40 year old married father. I am still so embarrassed and ashamed of this relationship. I was totally swept up in this idea he needed me, I was the only person who understood him, we really connected and it was TRUE LOVE. How dumb and arrogant could I be to think a 40 year old man was honestly connecting with an 18 year old? It doesn’t matter how precocious I was. He was 40! AND MARRIED WITH KIDS! Ugh I was so selfish. I didn’t even think about the consequences on his family. I thought he and his wife were DONE but I didn’t think of how it could’ve hurt his kids too. BTW I’m pretty sure he and his wife are still together. Now I wonder how many other young girls played my role.
Anyway I still feel alot of shame over what I did but I’ve tried to learn a few lessons. A couple of my takeaways:
1) Even the most intense feelings can be fleeting. You think there is no way you’ll get over this man or woman. Hah! I am super cynical about that now. “Eh, just wait. You’ll get over him or her. Give it time”
2) Be wary of becoming a married person’s emotional confidant. Now when my married male friends confide in me I’ll say things like “Did you talk to your wife about that? ” or try to get them to see things from her POV. You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s marriage and you’re just getting one side in these conversations. Moreover, I think you can easily find yourself becoming a problem in someone else’s relationship when you play that role – e.g., “Keaton understands me. Keaton doesn’t think I’m a jackass” Well Keaton doesn’t know your wife’s side! I like to think of myself as a decent human being but I found myself swept up in this affair and that’s how it started – playing someone’s confidant. I should have known better.
Back on topic: I don’t know if Carrie and Harrison’s relationship was just sexual or if there was an emotional component to it too. Maybe they just got swept up in the fantasy of being on set and away from real life. Regardless, I relate to being that naive teenage girl that isn’t even thinking about the consequences of her actions. It sounds like Carrie is romanticizing it now and I’m not sure if that’s such a good look. Perhaps Harrison’s ex-wife and kids already know what happened and moved on. Hopefully this doesn’t cause them more embarrassment.
@Keaton I think yours is an all too common story. It echos exactly what my sister went through when she was 18. No matter how much we (her family) tried to reason with her, the lure of this older (married) man showering her with gifts, expensive vacations and telling her she was so mature, intelligent and beautiful was just so much more powerful than the voice of reason in her inexperienced adolescent brain. He used all the cliche excuses in the book: Miserable marriage, practically separated, only together for the little ones… Years later she’s wracked with guilt and regret, but I often have to remind her of his part in the situation. And he was her boss, to boot! Talk about unethical!
You were naive for sure, which is not a crime, but absolutely NOT dumb. We live and learn.
Thanks @Colleen I’m not sure why I felt the need to over-share but I did. I still feel really guilty for being so naïve and selfish. It’s made me almost overzealous in my empathy for the humiliation the cheated spouse and family go through. Tell your sister I relate to her guilt and regret! I’m sure some folks will judge us for our terrible mistakes but hopefully we’ve both learned.
Yep Sarah, I walk back my ignorant former comment. Didn’t realize he was married with kids at the time and I’m sure those kids now didn’t need this. It all seems in bad taste and with no other purpose but to sell a book. No thanks. I won’t buy it solely for that reason.
I don’t find this nearly as creepy (honestly, it doesn’t really bother me at all) as the Tony Bennett story.
This was 40 years ago and I’m pretty sure everyone has moved on from it (meaning his ex-wife & now very adult “children”). I mean his wife divorced him because of his cheating, so I’m sure they’re all aware of his past indiscretions & behavior.
I’m not sure I needed to know this.
I’m not alarmed by this. It was the 70’s and she’s Carrie Fisher, of course drugs were involved. Having an affair with a married older guy sounds like something many young girls would do. It’s wrong and I’m not defending it but I’m not shocked either. It was a wrong situation but the implications from some that some sort of sex crime happened are uncalled for. You being icky about the age difference doesn’t mean that some sex crime took place. I really think that the pearl clutching about age when the person is over 18 is so boring.
Also, I’m sure Ford’s adult children knew that he was a cheater before this affair came to light. I’m sure that they aren’t happy about this news but they are in their 40’s not teens, they’ll get over it.
“…the implications from some that some sort of sex crime happened are uncalled for. You being icky about the age difference doesn’t mean that some sex crime took place. I really think that the pearl clutching about age when the person is over 18 is so boring.”
I agree 100% with you about the annoying (and sometimes problematic) ways people infantilize 18-24-year-olds (especially women) when it comes to sexual agency, and have no problem with a 15-year age gap between consenting adults. But one of the other reasons why people are side-eying this situation is because she said he ‘got her drunk’ before their first time. So it makes you think ‘was he deliberately getting her drunk so she would have sex with him, or was this a situation where they were going to end up hooking up with each other anyway but she (or they) also had a habit of getting stoned or drunk because it was 1970’s Hollywood?
Not sure having an affair with an older MARRIED person is really common behavior for people around that age to do though. I didn’t and my sister didn’t- only one person that I know of from our circle did that. (Or were you just talking about people from the 70’s, not this generation?)
I agree with you here. I also hate when people infantilze younger women because many times it seem as if they are just desperate to accuse the older guy of being a pervert/predator and in order to do that they have to make the woman a victim in a situation that she isn’t an actual victim. I only really side eyed this story because of the drinking, drugs and his martial status. All of those things are what makes their age difference which wouldn’t have been a big deal to me any other time uncomfortable for me.
Yes to everything you said.
People want to jump all over him but you damn well by the age of 19 that messing around with a married man is wrong. There is no victim here. There’s only selfishness and stupidity.
Had to get all the way down to 25 for someone to say this.
Well biologically and neurologically you are not an adult until 25 – insurance companies were the first ones to realize this, in that that’s about the age when really risky impulse behavior stops and people can understand fully risk taking.
Just because some of you felt adult at 19 and understood affairs and didn’t do risky and stupid things does not mean everyone else’s brain developed the same.
Probably unpopular to say given we send kids to the military, and off to college, and whatever else at 18/19 but they are still old children then.
Biologically people’s brains also begin to degrade quite significantly about a decade after they’ve matured. You really only get about 10-15 years of peak brain basically, everything else is the climb and the downward slide.
Well I’m just going to file this under Things I Wish I Didn’t Know.
Why do humans over share? I don’t want to know so many things that I don’t need to know.
It’s the times way live. We’ve gone from one extreme to another. Up until the 60s everything was hidden. From the 70s on, explicit, unhidden, exploitative.
I guess I’m old fashioned too. A Thirty three year old married man and a nineteen year old girl? If she was stoned 1/2 the time how would she know how he performed? And…..call me VERY old fashioned, but when you’re actually in love with someone isn’t the point not to “rate” them but be grateful that you are close to them and knowing that each time it’s going to get better and better? But after all he was married, and it was a fling. It creeps me out as much as Mick Jagger seducing fifteen year old Mackenzie Phillips with her father on the other side of the door. And her as a grown woman bragging about it!
I agree with most of this. I doubt a 19 year old girl who was drunk and high all the time was a) a good lay herself, or b) coherent enough to accurately judge any person or situation around her.
I’m not monogamous myself, so I’m not going to cast stones at anyone else for not being so either, BUT there has to a DADT ethical obligation where kids are concerned, even adults ones years later IMO. It was selfish of her to publish this stuff to make a profit for herself(!!!!!!), not caring what his kids might think. She deliberately waited until his first two wives were dead to do it, but the kids don’t matter to her?
I didn’t like it when she went blabbing to tabloids about his (then current) personal life while he was seperating from his second wife and those kids were young, but this is just…. really really gross.
Feel completely validated for never liking him bc there ws “..just something gross about him..”
She was and continues to be a fame whore. Bragging about being stoned and banging a married man when you were 19 is not cool. She has totally disregarded the feelings of his now-grown children and ex-wife. What if they had known about the cheating and what trauma did it cause within the family. Obviously she doesn’t care – selling books and keeping her name in the press is all she cares about. Cant stand her – never could.
I was on the other side of this coin at one point….married, stay at home mom, with two little children. My husband started cheating with a young girl at work. He didn’t even care that I knew about it, or how it was affecting our kids/family life…When you cheat on your spouse, you cheat on your kids, too…things are never the same for any of them…He even started emotionally and mentally abusing me, like it was my fault he was cheating. To this day, I swear I have PTSD because of it. So, if any young girls out there, are considering cheating with a married man, just remember…he lies to you and his family is suffering….Don’t be drawn in by an older man with a “my home life is so miserable” tale…My kids and I will never think of this as some “cute” story from the past, no matter how much time goes by…
Aw. Hell. No.
She just gave up the rebellion plans to the Empire! Can’t trust a princess man. lol
Count me among those who find this pretty…gross. Especially on the part of Harrison. Just UG. Everyone else has said what I would have said. There’s nothing cute or endearing about this AT ALL.
Seriously, why release that information now? Take some secrets to the grave.
My young teen self really recognized his hotness over 30 years ago.
I was his fan for the longest time. Every single movie, including that awful 7 days something with Ellen’s ex, whatshername.
I still crave The Fugitive, and gotta find and rewatch the Jack Ryan movies.
About Carrie and him, I am all against infidelity, but I SO HAVE WOULD TOO.
I’d wish she would have kept this for herself. It’s a distasteful thing to learn for Harrison Ford’s kids.
I thought this was common knowledge, she’s talked about it before in the past. Or else I time travelled?
Three words: wine, weed and cocaine. Throw in a distant exotic film location on what was then a scrappy indie film in the mid-70s (no internet gossip blogs or Iphones to capture everyone’s activity) and you know this kind of thing happened all the time, more often than not.
Did Han shoot first?
This happened during Empire. No way during the first movie. There’s too many set photos from the Empire shoot that show a smitten Carrie and Harrison being protective. If this happened during the first movie, something happened again during Empire filming.
Over time little bits and pieces of gossip have surfaced about Harrison Ford. For instance, this article has an eye-opening reference.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/03/eve-babitz-los-angeles-party-scene
Thank you for this read. It was fascinating and enlightening. I have never heard of Eve Babitz and I barely knew who Edie Sedgwick was. Reading this article had me tumbling down a rabbit hole of 1960s and 70s glamor gossip. I might even buy Eve Babitz’s book. Her line that Harrison Ford can sleep with 9 women a day and that’s real talent because Warren Betty could only handle 6 was funny. It also put this affair in context, Eve Babitz was with ppl before they became stars. So Harrison was a big man whore before he became a major celeb. His ex-wife probably looked at this incident as just one of so many.
Not shocking. Carrie might be telling this now since Harrison Ford’s ex wife has passed away. I’m pretty sure his current wife is younger than Carrie. Ick all around.
Calista flockhart is 22 years younger than Harrison, FYI (& I miss her tremendously on Supergirl FWIW). They were together quite a while before getting married, maybe she wanted to be cautious because of his past behavior?
Even if this (presumably & hopefully) isn’t news to his wife & kids, still gotta be no fun to have your husband’s business in the street. Plus, this isn’t someone just from the past; Harrison & Carrie worked together on the last Star Wars movie. Although maybe in Hollywood everyone’s always working with an ex or 2…
I did read an old interview with his first wife (the one he cheated on with Carrie), who had been diagnosed with MS. She had only glowing things to say about him (and Calista) how supportive he was, etc. So I guess she forgave him at least.
Okay.
I fully acknowledge the bad choices they both made that led them to have a “months long affair” while filming.
Yada yada yada no bueno etc etc.
But the inner sci-fi lover inside me (that grew up on star wars, star trek, and everything in between) is LOVING THE SH*T OUTTA THIS!
He clearly took advantage of her, and I myself describe him as the epitome of indifference, I don’t think pleasure was a benefit to her. The fact that she changed the rumor into a fact, the years it stayed secret she was unintentionally protecting him. He needs to take responsibility for his actions and conform her sorry, as well as say he cares slot her.