Carrie Fisher becomes the latest star of BBC documentary A Life In Ten Pictures, which returns for a second series on Thursday.
Carrie, best known for playing the role of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films, tragically passed away on December 27, 2016 at the age of 60 after suffering cardiac arrest.
The new BBC documentary explores her life through ‘a handful of iconic shots and private snapshots reveal a new story, of an extraordinary life seen through a unique lens’ when it airs on BBC Two.
Outside of a glittering career in Hollywood, Carrie led an intriguing life.
From growing up with famous parents to an affair with Harrison Ford and an unlikely friendship with James Blunt, here’s a glimpse into the fascinating life led by Carrie Fisher.
Carrie Fisher becomes the latest star of BBC documentary A Life In Ten Pictures, which returns for a second series on Thursday
Born in 1956, Carrie was the first child of pop singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, best known for her role in the 1952 classic Singin’ In The Rain.
A star-studded upbringing
Born in 1956, Carrie was the first child of pop singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, best known for her role in the 1952 classic Singin’ In The Rain as Kathy Selden.
Speaking about how her upbringing affected her later in life, she noted that this was not the caseRuly is a product of Hollywood inbreeding. When two celebrities mate, the result is someone like me,” she shared Vanity fair.
She also talked about how she was left virtually unattended from birth due to her parents’ fame.
In her autobiography she writes about her birth: ‘When I was born, my mother was given an anesthetic because they didn’t have an epidural at the time. She was therefore unconscious.
“All the doctors (in the delivery room) were buzzing around her beautiful head and saying, ‘Oh, look at Debbie Reynolds sleeping – how beautiful.’ ”
“And my father fainted when he saw me arrive. So all the nurses ran over and said, ‘Oh look, there’s Eddie Fisher, the crooner, on the floor. Let’s go look at him. ”
“So when I arrived, I was pretty much unattended. And I’ve been trying to make up for that fact ever since.”
Two years later, Fisher famously left Reynolds and their two children, Carrie and her younger brother, Todd, to be with Elizabeth Taylor.
Harrison Ford affair
In Carrie’s final memoir, The Princess Diarist, released just months before her death, she revealed that she had a three-month affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of the original Star Wars.
In Carrie’s latest memoir, she revealed that she had a three-month affair with Harrison Ford during the filming of the original Star Wars (pictured together in December 2015).
Carrie wrote in her memoir The Princess Diarist, “How can you ask such a splendid specimen of a man to be satisfied with the likes of me?”
Harrison has been married to actress Calista Flockhart since 2010 and has never publicly commented on his affair with Carrie (pictured together)
She was only 19 years old at the time, while Harrison was 33, married and had two children.
In a passage from The Princess Diarist, Carrie recalled a birthday party for director George Lucas that she attended with her fellow Star Wars actor.
She wrote, “I looked at Harrison. The face of a hero: a few locks of hair fell over his noble, slightly furrowed brow,” she wrote.
‘How can you expect such a radiant specimen of a man to be satisfied with people like me?
“A small part of me felt like I had won the men’s lottery, and here I was both counting and spending the money.”
She added that their affair, which lasted three months, was “intense” because they were working together at the time.
Carrie also told Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford of The Today Show that the affair felt like a “three-month one-night stand.”
Harrison would subsequently divorce his first wife Mary after the first film was released.
Carrie married Paul Simon for a year in 1983, before dating 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 and has never publicly commented on his affair with Carrie.
Friendship with James Blunt
Carrie Fisher also formed an unlikely friendship with British singer-songwriter James Blunt, because he “dated a girl whose parents were family friends of Carrie and sat next to her at lunch.”
Carrie also formed an unlikely friendship with British singer-songwriter James Blunt
After Carrie’s death in 2016, James wrote the track Dark Thought, as a tribute to the legendary actress
Speak with The guardabout how the pair forged a friendship that few would have predicted, James said: “I had just gotten a record deal and was moving to LA.”
‘Carrie’s first question was, “What are you doing?” I said, “I left the military to go make an album in LA.”
“Question number two was, “Where are you going to live?” I said I didn’t know. Her response – the third thing she ever said to me – was, “Well, you’re going to live with me.” So that’s exactly what I did.’
Although James said he saw little of Carrie during the first month he lived in Los Angeles, they gradually became closer.
He added that the pair would talk after he returned from the recording studio, sometimes at 3 a.m., making her and Blunt almost inseparable.
After Carrie’s death in 2016, James wrote the song Dark Thought, released in 2023, which he said described the moment he returned to her house after her death.
James talked about how difficult the incident proved to be for him, saying he “put my hand on her fence and started crying.”
A Life In Ten Pictures with Carrie Fisher airs on Thursday March 21 at 9pm on BBC Two
