My Secret Romance with Harrison Ford

Some 4 Decades After Star Wars Launched Her Career, the Star Opens Up About Her Whirlwind Fling With Her Costar.

- Elizabeth Leonard

Discretion is hardly Carrie Fisher’s strong suit. In the Hollywood spotlight for four decades, the actress and author has publicly shared her most personal experiences, from struggles with addiction to living with bipolar disorder. But there is one secret the star has guarded closely: When she was 19, she and Harrison Ford, then a 33-year-old married father of two, carried on a three-month affair while filming the original Star Wars in 1976. “It was so intense,” says Fisher, 60, of the real-life romance die-hard fans of the franchise have wished for since Han Solo and Princess Leia captured hearts onscreen. “It was Han and Leia during the week, and it was Carrie and Harrison during the weekend.”

After stumbling on the often angst-ridden journals she kept while filming on location in London, she felt the time for full disclosure had come. In The Princess Diarist, excerpted here, she opens up about the formative experience she says took her by complete surprise. “It’s been 40 years,” explains Fisher, who went on to marry and has a daughter, Scream Queens actress Billie Lourd, 24. “I didn’t say anything to anybody for years. But it’s not like anyone’s deeply affected by it anymore.” Whether Ford will agree remains to be seen, but she did give her costar (who didn’t respond to People’s request for comment) a friendly heads-up—and received a typically dry-witted response. “He went, ‘Lawyer!’ ” says Fisher, who then sent him a draft and was open to any notes. (None were forthcoming.) “Harrison’s very private, but I think I waited an appropriate amount of time,” she says. “How much longer could I wait?”