Dan Aykroyd opened up about his ex-fiancée Carrie Fisher in an essay about love, drugs, and laughter
As we all continue to mourn her loss, it’s comforting to hear from those who knew her best. And now, Carrie Fisher’s ex-fiancée Dan Aykroyd is opening up about the genius, openly troubled Star Wars legend in an essay honoring “one of the most brilliant and hilarious minds of our eon.”
The essay, which will appear in Empire magazine’s farewell to Fisher on Thursday, January 26th, details Aykroyd’s 1980 relationship with Fisher — whom he calls a “one-off, broke-the-mould woman” — which began when they met on Saturday Night Live.
“She and John Belushi became instant pals,” Aykroyd writes. “I remember how much she made him laugh. Later, while filming Blues Brothers, Carrie and I fell in love and during the shoot she moved in with me into a penthouse suite in the futuristic, aluminium-clad Astro Tower, which I knew to apologise for. Carrie had the most refined eye for art and design.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4YOsjCI-Q?feature=oembed
Their story only got more wacky — more Fisher — from there, with Aykroyd writing,
While in Chicago we obtained blood tests for compatibility from an East Indian female doctor. Contemplating marriage, I gave Carrie a sapphire ring and subsequently in the romance she gave me a Donald Roller Wilson oil painting of a monkey in a blue dress next to a tiny floating pencil, which I kept for years until it began to frighten my children. One of the most brilliant and hilarious minds of our eon, Carrie would say things like: 'I love tiny babies. When they cry they turn red and look like screaming tomatoes.' OR 'This romance is finished the second you let out even a threep. I’ll be sick for a year.' AND “You have a jawline, hold your chin up otherwise you look like a tuna.' From then on I would identify myself on the phone as Tuna Neck."
Aykroyd then warmly describes Fisher’s famous Hollywood family. The son of “a government family in Hull, Quebec,” Aykroyd was dazzled by Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, but he added that they always made him feel loved and welcome in “Hollywood-glamorous emotional comfort, elegance and excitement.”
“Debbie would cook for us and Carrie’s tech-wizard brother Todd would take me on high-intensity cruises in muscle cars and on motorcycles through Beverly Hills with great young people,” Aykroyd explains.
He also dropped LSD with Fisher, detailing a private weekend in Lake Tahoe in which the two “obtained some original Owsley” and experienced “three days of full-on weeping to Christmas classics” as a couple.
“At this point our love was soaring on laugh-filled exhilaration and a vibrant, wholly satisfying physical intimacy,” he writes. “Certainly one of the planet’s greatest occasions where LSD was a factor.”
Of course, their engagement was very short-lived, with Fisher reuniting with — and eventually, marrying — her ex Paul Simon. Their final weekend was spent in Aykroyd’s Martha’s Vineyard home, purchased for him by Judy Belushi, John’s now widow.
"It was a fixer-upper, mid-century oil-guzzler, albeit designed by Hideo Sasaki," he writes. "Carrie said, 'It looks like it was abandoned by Fred and Wilma Flintstone.' The next morning she asked me to drive her to the airport and she flew to New York. Architectural reservations notwithstanding, Carrie wasn’t shallow, we had a great time. She was also in love with Paul Simon. She married him but I hope she kept my ring."
We’ll probably never know if Fisher kept that ring — surely, she had other impressive jewelry — but still. Even though Fisher was so refreshingly candid about her life and struggles in her books, her theater, and in countless interviews, it’s a dazzling, wild ride to read about her from the people who knew her best.
