Paul Simon says his 'whirlwind' marriage to Carrie Fisher caused an 'emotional upheaval'
Paul Simon is opening up about his "whirlwind" relationship with the late Carrie Fisher.
In a new documentary that takes a deeper look into the icon's career, titled "In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon," Simon detailed his tumultuous romance with his ex-wife and explained why it quickly became "complicated."
"Carrie was much more show business oriented," he says in the film. "I went along with that — that’s the world that she grew up with; she was used to it. She was used to a lot of press and things like that. It wasn’t intimidating or anything. She knew how to manipulate it and make it work for her. She was really good at it, and I wasn’t."
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"There were lots of things that were remarkable about the time, but also it was two people at career peaks, and that’s always complicated," he added. "All of it was kind of a whirlwind. Carrie was in a complete fame bubble because of ‘Star Wars.'"
The couple initially met in the late ‘70s but didn’t wed until August 1983. They divorced less than a year later, in July 2024.
After their split, Simon admitted that "all types of mistakes" had been made during his marriage to Fisher.
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"I mean, what was I thinking? Certainly not thinking about life, you know, that you actually like have to stop," Simon said in a resurfaced interview that took place shortly after the split. "Marriage is very … it’s a hard thing to do. You have to concentrate on — not everything can happen at once, not everything is a media event. All types of mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes."
"I realized I could become exhausted by — I could exhaust myself from emotional upheaval," added Simon, who eventually married singer Edie Brickell. The couple share three children: Adrian Edward, Lulu and Gabriel Elijah.
For Fisher, marrying Simon was clearly the "wrong thing to do."
"Well, because I think, if you look at me, at the most, you can think I’m an interesting girlfriend. But a wife? I think you’re going to be disappointed," Fisher, who died in 2016, wrote in her memoir, "Wishful Drinking," according to Vanity Fair. "Poor Paul. He had to put up with a lot with me."
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"I think ultimately, I fell into the heading 'good anecdote, bad reality.' I was really good for material, but when it came to day-to-day living, I was a little more than he could take," the actress, who married Bryan Lourd and welcomed daughter Billie Lourd, shared.
The two went on to date on and off for years following their divorce, but ultimately called it quits and moved on.
The two-part series, available on MGM+, features Simon working on his 20th album, "Seven Psalms," as he struggles with his hearing loss and voice issues.
The documentary will also touch on the rise and fall of Simon & Garfunkel.