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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jabeen Waheed

Inside Harrison Ford's affair with Carrie Fisher that they kept secret for 40 years

Star Wars is one of the most popular and long-running sci-fi movie series in the world, which has made stars out of countless people, including Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia.

The late actress was only 19 years old when she started filming 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, in which she starred opposite Harrison Ford.

While the movie won over audiences immediately and dominated the box office, there was also a certain chemistry behind the scenes brewing from the beginning, which was only confirmed in Carrie's final memoir, The Princess Diarist, released a few months before her death.

In her memoir, she revealed she had a whirlwind three-month affair with Harrison while filming the original Star Wars.

At the time, she was 19 years old, while Harrison was 33 and a married father of two.

Carrie Fisher had an affair with Harrison Ford on the set of the first Star Wars (Corbis via Getty Images)

In her memoir, Carrie recalled a particular night during filming when she and Harrison attended a birthday party for director 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?

"A tiny part of me felt like I'd won the man lottery, and here I was both counting and spending the money.

"I was shocked by the fact that he fancied me. I was a very insecure girl and had only had one boyfriend."

She later added: "I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him," she says. "He was kind."

Carrie recalled being shocked that Harrison liked her (Lucasfilm/Bad Robot/Walt Disney Studios/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

Speaking in interviews later, Carrie added that their affair was so "intense".

"It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend," she told PEOPLE.

Carrie also told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford of The Today Show that the affair was mostly sexual, stating it was like a "three-month one-night stand".

Despite feeling guilty over the affair, which she said was initiated by Harrison while filming in London, Carrie added: "I wasn't raised that way, but when you're on location — this is something I discovered — everything is permitted."

Carrie also said she became "obsessed" with the actor and hoped he would leave his wife at the time Mary Marquardt for her, but that never happened, and their secret romance wrapped when filming did.

Their affair wrapped when filming did and they never rekindled it (NY Daily News via Getty Images)

Harrison went on to split from his wife Mary after the first film had been released. However, he and Carrie never rekindled their affair during filming sequel film, The Empire Strikes Back.

Carrie went on to marry Paul Simon in 1983 for a year. She then dated talent agent Bryan Lourd from 1991 to 1994. Their only child, daughter Billie Lourd, was born in 1992.

Harrison has been married to actress Calista Flockhart since 2010. He has never publicly commented on the affair.

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