Carrie Fisher is set to be the latest star to feature in BBC documentary A Life In Ten Pictures, which returns for a second series on Thursday.
Best known for playing Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films, Carrie tragically died at the age of 60 on December 27, 2016 after suffering cardiac arrest.
The new BBC documentary will examine his life through “a handful of iconic and private shots revealing a new story, of an extraordinary life seen through a unique lens” when it airs on BBC Two.
Far from a successful career in Hollywood, Carrie lived a fascinating life.
From growing up with famous parents to an affair with Harrison Ford and an unlikely friendship with James Blunt, here’s a look at the fascinating life led by Carrie Fisher.
Carrie Fisher is set to be the latest star to feature in 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 starring in the 1952 classic Singin’ In The Rain.
A star education
Born in 1956, Carrie was the first child of pop singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, best known for starring in the 1952 classic Singin’ In The Rain as Kathy Selden.
Speaking about how her upbringing affected her later in life, she remarked that she was notis generally a product of Hollywood inbreeding. When two celebrities come together, the result is someone like me,” she said. Vanity Fair.
She also told how she was virtually left unattended due to her parents’ fame from the moment she was born.
Writing about her birth in her autobiography, she said: “When I was born, my mother was given anesthetic because they didn’t have epidurals at the time. So she was unconscious.
“All the doctors (in the delivery room) were buzzing around her pretty head going, ‘Oh, look at Debbie Reynolds asleep, how pretty.'”
“And my father, seeing me arrive, fainted. So all the nurses came running and said, “Oh look, there’s Eddie Fisher, the crooner, on the floor.” Let’s go see him.”’
“So when I got there, I was basically unsupervised. And ever since, I’ve been trying to make up for it.
Two years later, Fisher left Reynolds and their two children, Carrie and her younger brother, Todd, to be with Elizabeth Taylor.
Harrison Ford case
In Carrie’s final memoir, The Princess Diarist, published just months before her death, she revealed that she had a three-month affair with Harrison Ford while filming the original Star Wars.
In Carrie’s latest memoir, she revealed that she had a three-month affair with Harrison Ford while filming the original Star Wars (pictured together in December 2015).
Writing in her memoir The Princess Diarist, Carrie said: “How can you ask such a brilliant specimen of a man to be pleased with 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 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. A hero’s face – a few strands of hair fell on his noble, slightly furrowed forehead,” she wrote.
“How could you ask such a brilliant specimen of a man to settle for me?”
“A tiny part of me felt like I had won the men’s lottery, and here I was 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 The Today Show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford that the affair felt like a “three-month one-night stand.”
Harrison would later separate from his first wife Mary after the release of the first film.
Carrie married Paul Simon in 1983 for a year, 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 struck up an unlikely friendship with British singer-songwriter James Blunt, because he “dated a girl whose parents were friends of Carrie’s family and sat next to her at the lunch “.
Carrie also struck up an unlikely friendship with British singer-songwriter James Blunt.
After Carrie’s death in 2016, James wrote the song Dark Thought, in tribute to the legendary actress.
Talk to The Guardianabout how the two struck up a friendship that few would have predicted, James said, “I had just gotten a record deal and was moving to Los Angeles.”
“Carrie’s first question was, ‘What do you do?’ “I said, ‘I left the army to go make an album in Los Angeles.’
“The second question was, ‘Where are you going to live?’ » I said I didn’t know. Her response – the third thing she said to me – was, “Well, you’re going to live with me. That’s exactly what I did.
Although James said he saw little of Carrie during her first month living in Los Angeles, they gradually grew closer.
He said the two would talk after he returned from the recording studio, sometimes at 3 a.m., which helped her become almost inseparable.
After Carrie’s death in 2016, James wrote the track Dark Thought, released in 2023, which he says describes the moment he returned to her house after her death.
Recounting how difficult the incident proved for him, James said he “put my hand on his gate and started crying”.
A Life In Ten Pictures starring Carrie Fisher will air at 9pm on Thursday March 21 on BBC Two.