Paul's girlfriend, Shelley Duvall, had gone to England to make The Shining, and we ran into each other at a Saturday Night Live after party. I didn't want to give anyone the anecdote that they'd slept with Princess Leia, so I got into a relationship with him pretty quickly.

In 1977, I met Paul Simon. Afterwards a group of us went to dinner, and Paul and I had an argument. As I never finished high school, I had enrolled in New York's Sarah Lawrence College, but he said I would never stick it out, as the lure of showbiz would be too great. Of course, he turned out to be right, but I was annoyed by his opinion.

Playing Princess Leia in Star Wars made me famous, but at 19, when I took on the role, I felt like a very short, squat, pudgy-faced girl. I always thought my mother was very beautiful and knew I didn't really look like her. I never thought I was pretty.

My mother, Debbie Reynolds, set out to find someone dissimilar, and so she married shoe tycoon Harry Karl. He was quiet, drank and farted a lot, and wasn't a very vital person. He was a very selfish man and gambled the $7 million my mother made from movies, $3 million in just one card game. From him, I learnt not to blindly trust men, as that had gone horribly wrong for my mother.

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, the role that made her famous.

Paul and I travelled a lot and both enjoyed conversation. He wrote songs about me, such as Hearts and Bones, Late in the Evening, Graceland and She Moves On. None of them upset me, instead I felt honoured. But our relationship couldn't work. We dated for six years, married for two, divorced for one, then dated again, but I don't think I was ready for a relationship. There was a 15-year difference in age; at 21, that was just too big.

I had met Dan Aykroyd when I was still with Paul. John Belushi wanted us to be together and so invited me to his house. Soon after, John passed out and Dan and I went out to the car and made out for a couple of hours. On the set of The Blues Brothers in 1980, he asked me to marry him. I didn't eat much in those days, so he was coercing me with food. I almost choked on a brussels sprout and he saved me. He then proposed and I said yes because I didn't know, if I was going to choke on a brussels sprout again, if he'd be around to help. Dan was lovely, but I liked the drama with Paul.

When Paul and I finally split, I met agent Bryan Lourd. He was very attractive and good at taking care of me, and in 1992, we had a daughter, Billie. But a year later he left me for a man. It was awful. It wasn't him I couldn't forgive but myself, as I felt so stupid. Billie has pretty good instincts. If I were to advise her about marriage, I'd tell her to look for someone who is more of a companion than just physically attractive. She's only 18 but she's had two long-term relationships, which is kind of amazing at that age, so I wouldn't presume to advise her.

My father died on September 22 this year, and I lost someone who loved me very much. We had a very good relationship towards the end and I had supervised his care. He was very grateful for that because he knew he hadn't earnt it. My father was a joyous spirit. Very childlike and ultimately, no matter what he did, you couldn't be mad at him.