A new biography of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds: Princess Leia & Unsinkable Tammy in Hell, by film historians Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, alleges that the late Fisher – and General Leia of our Hearts – had affairs with rock legends David Bowie and Queen‘s Freddie Mercury in 1973, when she was just 17.
At the time, Bowie would’ve been married to his first wife, model Angie Bowie, while Mercury was in a long-term relationship with a woman, shopgirl Mary Austin. Fisher, meanwhile was training as an actress at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, four years before she broke through in Star Wars: A New Hope.
The story goes that she met both blokes when she went to a party with her ma, Reynolds, who had been invited along by The Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger.
Fisher is believed to have told Only When I Laugh actress Joan Hackett about the relationships, which Hackett relayed to Porter in an interview in 1983.
She said she was attracted to Bowie because he “had made the world a better place for rebels, oddballs, and misfits like me”, and that while cocaine could make him “ruthless, mean, jealous. At other times, he conquered his demons and could be sweet and tender, wanting and needing love“.
In talking about Mercury, the book says: “In addition to an endless parade of boys and young men on the side, Mercury occasionally seduced a young woman and had a long-time relationship with Mary Austin… Carrie said she didn’t want to interfere with his ongoing love affair, but he dismissed her concerns.”
Mmm, yep, seems very legit, and totally impossible to verify, considering Reynolds, Fisher, Hackett, Bowie and Mercury have all passed away.
Fisher dated and was briefly married to Paul Simon, another musical juggernaut, and also dated Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd in the late ’70s and early ’80s, before dating talent agent Bryan Lourd in the ’90s.
In her 2016 autobiography, The Princess Diarist, she wrote that she had a three-month affair with co-star Harrison Ford in 1976, while they were filming Star Wars, and Ford was still married to his first wife chef Mary Marquardt.
Looks like if you’re curious about the other blatant gossip Porter and Prince have to dish, you can pick up a copy from Dymocks for $60. That’s up to you.
