Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesCarrie Fisher had some eyebrows raising when she came forward this week and confirmed her three-month affair with Harrison Ford in 1976. But, surprised or not, many people had the same question regarding the news: why now?
The 60-year-old actress—who played Princess Leia beside Ford as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy—told People magazine it all started with diary entries she found recently about her romance with the actor.
"It's been 40 years!" she tells the magazine about why she chose to include the secret in her new book, The Princess Diarist. "I didn't say anything to anybody for years but it's not like anyone's deeply affected by it anymore."
Still, she's aware that her former co-star doesn't typically air his dirty laundry. "Harrison's very private, but I think I waited an appropriate amount of time. How much longer could I wait?"
Not to mention, though Ford has yet to comment on the news, Fisher said she reached out to him about the book and even sent him a draft to read before publishing.
"I would never want to embarrass him," she said. "I was so inexperienced, but I trusted something about him. He was kind."
Fisher was only 19-years-old at the time and Ford was 31—and married to Mary Marquardt with two kids—but the actress can still vividly recall the romance being very "intense."
She described their relationship, saying, "It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrie and Harrison during the weekend."