Her nicknames for me were Byronius and Cock Ring. She once got a text alert from weather.com saying the northern lights were gonna be big… so that night I had to book flights and the next day we were there. When Gary had to pee on a plane she took him and a wee-wee pad into the lavatory and how they worked it out is one of life’s great mysteries. Most of my time with her involved me staring at her, wide-eyed and in blissful shock that one person could live a life so fully. We rode dog sleds in Canada, swam hot springs in Japan, pet koalas in Australia. That’s how she lived. Extraordinary. Brilliant. Hilarious. And generous! Not every assistant job is like that. I was with her for nearly 3 years. Every moment is a treasure, inspiration. I love this woman and will forever. She has been a force in my life from the moment I met her. To this day I think of her constantly. Every memory with her is bursting with color. I feel so lucky, you guys! So! Lucky! But, you know her, too. Because she was exactly the same in private as in public. Authentic. Honest. Real. A champion for mental health, veterans, feminism. She did anything for her family, loved her friends, embodied aliveness. I’ll miss her so, so much. – Byron Lane, Carrie’s former assistant
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The story just broke so I’m praying it’s misreporting but 😢😢😢
carrie fisher played a vital role in be becoming brave enough to seek help about my mental health issues and honestly i’m so thankful for having a person like her to look up to
The weird thing about Carrie Fisher’s passing is that there’s still the sadness and upset, but even stronger than that is this feeling of “it’s time to be strong now, it’s time to fight the good fight” and I’ve never had those feelings over an idol of mine passing before but I feel like it’s what we need to do. For her and for ourselves.
May the force be with you Carrie Fisher
I absolutely love how interactive with their fans and unproblematic and genuinely lovely Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill are like we don’t deserve them tbh what did we do to be blessed like this
“Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?”
I’m asked. Of course, it’s me
The token Star Wars fan
Of course I’ve heard about Carrie Fisher.Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?
The first princess who ever felt like me?
The damsel in distress who rescued her rescuers?
The real life woman who never apologised for being who she was?Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?
Who shared her personal stories
Of depression, addiction, being bipolar?
Who reminded us all we were more than our illness?Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?
Who fought back against media misogyny
Who proved to the world beauty is ageless
Who didn’t stop making the world smile up until the last?Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?
The woman who burned brighter than us all in the darkest of times
Who threw stigma out the window and told it like it was
Who connected with and treated fans like extended family?Who lives on in the heart and bite of every single girl and woman?
Who never let the world bring her down?
Who was crass and bold and wonderful and alive?
Who never stopped fighting?
Who will never be forgotten?
Who will always be cherished with all our hearts?Who always has been
And always will be
A hero?“Have you heard about Carrie Fisher?”
I’m asked. “Of course,”
I say.
“But have you?”
carrie fisher isn’t just princess leia. carrie fisher isn’t just an actress we all admire from a famous series of movies made a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. carrie fisher isn’t just another name on the list of shitty things 2016 has done to people i admire.
carrie fisher is a woman who struggled with addiction and mental illness and never sugar coated it - she spoke honestly, openly, about every ugly truth, and made me so much less ashamed of the things i struggle with in my daily life.
carrie fisher is a woman who fought back against body shaming and misogyny, against agesim, who looked at critics and said “yes, i am a woman who has aged, and had children, and struggled with depression and addiction and my body has changed, so you can just shut the fuck up and deal with it”, and it was absolutely beautiful.
carrie fisher is a woman who was placed in the role of “princess” but didn’t conform to the typical hollywood idea of what a princess should be. she’s loud, brash, crass, and unapologetic for being so.
she’s an idol and an inspiration and she’s a woman who saved my life many times just by being who she was and never shying away from it or feeling the need to say sorry. carrie fisher is so much and more and i cannot begin to stomach the thought of 2016 taking her away from me, from her family, from the rest of the world and those of us who love her so dearly.
i love you, space momma. we all do. keep fighting the good fight.
Rest In Peace, Carrie Fisher. Iconic Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher died this morning. She was 60
Billie Lourd, Fisher’s daughter, confirmed the death today in an official statement. Issued by family representative Simon Halls, the statement to People reads: “It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning.” Her legacy is incontestable – and probably a lot more than you knew.
Update: we would actually like to report that Carrie Fisher died by being drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra. We apologize for the earlier error.

R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds, who has passed away at the age of 84 – one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.
I saw this pic, and up from the depths of my brain bubbled a wholly inappropriate image: somewhere, in some afterlife, Carrie Fisher is good-naturedly chewing out Debbie Reynolds for trying to upstage her.
It’s a moment before she’s here and then she’s there. She can’t see anything, really, and it’s all quite vague, but then through the mist, Debbie hears it–
“Oh my god, Mom. Can’t I even die?!”
–and she laughs, cries, and laughs again because Carrie’s smiling as she shakes her head and closes the distance between them.
“Never you mind that, darling,” Debbie says, pulling her into a hug. “Just wait until I tell you what they’re saying about you. It’s wonderful.”there’s been a huge outpouring of love for carrie fisher over the past few days that, quite rightly, isn’t only focused on her work and the iconic character that she played, but who she was as a person and the strength she inspired in people.
it makes me sad that i’ve only seen posts about debbie reynolds that celebrate her for being carrie fisher’s mother, and an actress of hollywood’s golden age.
while those are totally great and valid reasons to appreciate her, (and understandable — she was of a much different generation and most of us are less familiar with her) i want to talk about how debbie was also an incredible woman in her own right.
debbie reynolds was a survivor of childhood abuse. she was a mental health advocate for most of her life. in 1955 she became a founding member of the thalians — an organization dedicated to mental health causes — which she led for almost 60 years.
she was a valuable and fierce ally to the lgbt community. she hosted AIDs benefits years before reagan publicly acknowledged the disease. she bearded for gay men to protect them from homophobia and discrimination that would prevent them from getting roles.
she was a strong, compassionate woman who, on top of raising her own two children with no help from their father, raised the three children of her second husband by his late ex-wife, even after he gambled away all of her money and left her flat broke.
so here’s to debbie reynolds. her legacy — like her daughter’s — is more than just who she was on camera. i’m full of gratitude. the world is better place for all that she left behind.
