Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Paul Simon Speaks Out on Death of Ex-Wife Carrie Fisher

Paul Simon spoke out about the death of his ex-wife, Carrie Fisher, on Wednesday. Simon, who has been married to Edie Brickell since 1992, shared his second marriage with Fisher between August 1983 and July 1984.

Fisher died Tuesday morning after suffering what was described as a massive heart attack on Friday while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, confirmed the death on Tuesday. “She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly,” the statement read. Lourd was Fisher’s daughter with talent agent Bryan Lourd who Fisher referred to as her second husband in interviews, although the two were never officially married.

“Yesterday was a horrible day. Carrie was a special, wonderful girl. It’s too soon,” Simon wrote on Twitter early Wednesday morning, adding his voice to a chorus of people who knew and loved Fisher during her lifetime, and have shared memories since her death.

“No words,” Fisher’s “Star Wars” co-star Mark Hamill wrote on Twitter shortly after news of her death was confirmed. “Devastated.”

“Carrie was one-of-a-kind…brilliant, original,” Harrison Ford said in a statement. “Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely.”

J.J. Abrams posted a hand-written note which read, “You didn’t need to meet Carrie Fisher to understand her power. She was just as brilliant and beautiful, tough and wonderful, incisive and funny as you could imagine. What an unfair thing to lose her. How lucky to have been blessed with her at all.”—Reuters

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.