Dan Aykroyd penned a touching tribute to his ex-fiancée Carrie Fisher, who died of a heart attack on December 27, 2016.
The Ghostbusters alum opened about his dear friend and former lover in an essay for the upcoming farewell issue of Empire magazine.
Aykroyd gushed about her incredible sense of humor, their plans for marriage and even their recreational drug use, as he shared memories from their time together.
“I met Carrie at Saturday Night Live,” he recalled. “She and John Belushi became instant pals. I remember how much she made him laugh. Later, while filming Blues Brothers, Carrie and I fell in love and during the shoot she moved in with me into a penthouse suite in the futuristic, aluminium-clad Astro Tower, which I knew to apologize for. Carrie had the most refined eye for art and design.”
Aykroyd said the pair were so in love that after they “obtained blood tests for compatibility from an East Indian female doctor,” they decided to get engaged.
He bought her a sapphire ring and, in turn, she gifted him “a Donald Roller Wilson oil painting of a monkey in a blue dress next to a tiny floating pencil.” He kept it for years, until “it began to frighten my children.”
Aykroyd wrote fondly about her ability to make him laugh, even when he was the butt of the joke.
“One of the most brilliant and hilarious minds of our eon, Carrie would say things like: ‘I love tiny babies. When they cry they turn red and look like screaming tomatoes.’ OR ‘This romance is finished the second you let out even a threep. I’ll be sick for a year.’ AND ‘You have a jawline, hold your chin up otherwise you look like a tuna.’ From then on I would identify myself on the phone as Tuna Neck.”
Aykroyd remembered how her family, including her mom, Debbie Reynolds and brother, Todd Fisher, welcomed him with open arms.
He also treasured some of the wild dates he and the Star Wars actress had, including a trip to Reno, Nevada, where they spent three days in a rented wagon, “full-on weeping to Christmas classics,” and tripping out on LSD.
But their romantic relationship came to an end after they moved into their new “fixer-upper” home, bought by Judy Belushi and designed by famous architect Hideo Sasaki.
“Carrie said, ‘It looks like it was abandoned by Fred and Wilma Flintstone,’” Aykroyd admitted. “The next morning she asked me to drive her to the airport and she flew to New York. Architectural reservations notwithstanding, Carrie wasn’t shallow, we had a great time. She was also in love with Paul Simon. She married him but I hope she kept my ring.”
Fisher broke up with Aykroyd in 1980 and reconnected with Simon, who she had dated before romancing her Blues Brothers costar.
She went on to marry Simon three years later, but, sadly, their relationship ended in divorce less than a year after they tied the knot.
