Chat show presenter Graham Norton has revealed he was close friends with a Hollywood legend, but concealed a massive secret from her. Graham, 63, first encountered Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher while filming Ruby Wax's BBC Two series Ruby.
The programme featured various guests gathered around a dinner table for an unscripted discussion. However, Graham disclosed that Ruby confessed she felt too familiar with the Princess Leia actress to broach the subject of Star Wars.
Graham, though, "didn't really care" for the sci-fi franchise growing up, so was asked whether he could question Carrie about George Lucas's creation. Speaking on his Wanging On podcast, he said: "I didn't really care about Star Wars at all, but years later there was a time where Ruby Wax did this chat show where it was kind of a dinner table and Ruby had people and you chatted to each other.
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"I was doing one with Ruby and it was the first time I ever met Carrie Fisher and so before the show, Ruby said to me, 'Look, I know Carrie so I can't ask her about Star Wars, can you ask the Star Wars questions?'
"And so I did, and from that day on, Carrie thought I was a fan of Star Wars and I never told her that I could not have cared less for Star Wars. To the point where there was all the secrecy about the new Star Wars Coming back, she told me the whole plot, she told me everything."
Graham went on to joke that he wouldn't have "anyone to tell" but he "doesn't know anyone who would care" about the franchise. He believes that Star Wars was both the "making of" and "undoing" of Carrie, reports the Mirror.
He added: "Princess Leia, that's a big old thing to drag through life, it's hard. She was just generally funny and so well liked."
In a 2015 interview with Time magazine, Carrie, who passed away aged 60 in 2016, admitted she had accepted "long ago" that she would forever be associated with Princess Leia. She said: "I long ago accepted that I am Princess Leia. I have that as a large part of the association with my identity."
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Having portrayed Leia in the original trilogy, Carrie made a triumphant return to the iconic role after 32 years in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
When questioned about her decision to answer J.J. Abrams' call, she replied: "I'm a female and in Hollywood it's difficult to get work after 30, maybe it's getting to be 40 now."
Following her portrayal of Leia, Carrie went on to pen a series of semi-autobiographical novels while also appearing in numerous television programmes and films, including When Harry Met Sally and the Blues Brothers. She received two Emmy nominations for her role in the sitcom 30 Rock.
Carrie's 2016 appearance on the Graham Norton Show ultimately proved to be her final interview. Reflecting on the star during ITV's This Morning, he said: "It transpired that was her final interview. If we had know, I wish we had done a better job! It was such a shock.
"It's taken a long time to figure out that she has gone. She did nearly cancel, she was ill, under the weather. But she got through the show. When we got news, I thought that can't be the end of Carrie Fisher. She was a life force."