
James Blunt hoped godmother role would help Carrie Fisher
James Blunt asked Carrie Fisher to be his son's godmother in the hope the honour would encourage her to "look after [herself]" better.
The You're Beautiful' singer lived with the late 'Star Wars' star in the early 2000s while recording his debut album 'Back to Bedlam' and they remained close over the years, so when he and wife Sofia Wellesley welcomed the first of their two boys into the world, he asked Carrie to take on a special role in the youngster's life.
And James revealed there was an underlying motivation in asking his friend - who died in December 2016 aged 60 after going into cardiac arrest, with drugs found in her system during post-mortem tests - to be godmother.
He told People magazine: 'I told her everything. I told her when I met my wife, we chose engagement rings together. She's godmother to my child. I was with her the day before she died, and it was very, very sad.
'What was saddest, I suppose, is how I asked her to be godmother to my child, saying, 'I'm asking you to do this in the hope that you'll look after yourself a little bit better.' And she didn't, really.'
James first met Carrie when he was dating one of her family friends and during a group lunch in London, he told the 'Sibling Rivalry' actress he was a musician and planning to head to Los Angeles, but when he admitted he didn't know where he was going to live, she instantly invited him to stay with her.
He reflected: 'It was remarkable. The first three months, I didn't speak to her. I literally didn't. Her mom, Deborah Reynolds, was on the property. I'd see them around, but I would leave in the morning. I'd go off to the studio. I'd come back late, late, late at night, and I just didn't speak to her.'
But after three months, the 51-year-old singer went into the kitchen late at night and found Carrie's staff talking about the actress, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 24.
He recalled: 'They were saying, 'She's having an episode,' and that she was going mad. She needed to change her medication and maybe they needed to get help.
'What was interesting about all of this, while they were talking about her, she was in the room.'
From there, James and Carrie began chatting and quickly became firm friends.
He said: 'I just could see she was just skipping between subjects rather quickly, [but] her brain was still working.
"Suddenly, we just had this kind of moment where I went and sat on the end of her bed, and she spoke to me until five in the morning.
"And the next day, I came in after the studio. I sat on the end of the bed, and we spoke until five in the morning, and we kind of did that for the rest of the time that she was alive. She became my best friend, really, at that stage."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Pierce Brosnan didn't give his sons Dylan and Paris acting advice as the trio starred together in The Unholy Trinity
Pierce Brosnan gave his sons "very little advice" as they worked together on the new movie The Unholy Trinity. The 72-year-old star is joined by his youngest boys Dylan, 28, and Paris, 24, - who he has with his wife Keely Shaye Smith - in the film and explained that he didn't want to overload the pair on their acting bows in the Western action flick. Pierce told People magazine: "I gave very little advice, and they asked me for very little advice. I think both men knew instinctively what to do: Show up on time, know your lines, and be brilliant. Be relaxed, and have fun, and go play." However, the former James Bond actor was less impressed by how untidy his sons were in the motor home they shared during the snowy production. Brosnan said: "It was winter, the snow was coming in, they didn't wipe their feet. Just the old common sense, 'Wipe your feet, take your boots off, for God's sake!' You know?" Pierce revealed how Dylan and Paris grew up on his movie sets as they travelled the world with their parents at the height of his movie career. The star - who also adopted his late wife Cassandra Harris' (who passed away aged 43 in 1991 from ovarian cancer) children Chris, 52, and Charlotte - who died from the same disease as her mother in 2013 at the age of 41 - recalled: "We always stayed together tight as a family during the days of James Bond. "(Dylan and Paris) have been on the road with me since they were tiny. Keely and I took them everywhere with us around the world." Paris explained that he and his brother's appearance in the movie "organically came about". He said: "It kind of naturally and organically came about. There were some little opening for us to get in there and dip our toes in the water." Dylan, meanwhile, wasn't concerned about how much screen time he got as he embraced the chance to act alongside his father and brother. He said: "It was just really nice to go spend time with Dad and Paris and be a part of that."

AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- AU Financial Review
World holds breath on Iran $30b deal to test govt
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, James and Anthony try to make sense of the conflict between Israel and Iran, explain why the biggest cash takeover in Australian history is a massive test for Jim Chalmers and ask: do our big CEOs ever miss out on a bonus? Listen to the full conversation below, or download the podcast from Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of the Chanticleer podcast are available every Friday at 5pm AEDT.

Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
And Just Like That recap: Carrie joins the ‘sisterwives'
This story contains spoilers for season three, episode four of And Just Like That... The rooster crows, waking Carrie up from her night in Aidan's guest house. Once Wyatt sticks his head in the window and reports that she's awake, she has to step gently over the floor strewn with Gatorade bottles and free dumbbells. Is this the manosphere I've been hearing so much about? Carrie left her bags in the rental car, you'll remember, which is why we must witness a gorgeous woman with perfect hair insist that she's stinky and repulsive in front of literal teenage boys in the morning. Virginia is not the place our girl belongs, even as she insists on riding an ATV into town to buy Batsheva dresses at a 'sisterwives dress shop'. She gives Miranda an update on the phone, and suggests she invite BBC Joy's friends over to the Gramercy house so Miranda can still go on her first date with her work crush. But that's before another c-word gets in the way. Don't worry, I'm not going to beat this dead horse as much as the show's writers did. But to recap: after learning to breathe an episode ago, Miranda pauses during her big on-camera live cross – right in the middle of the word 'countryside'. Did she just –? She did. And you'll keep hearing it. Over and over. In memes and phone calls. In puns about the word 'context'. The humiliation of Miranda Hobbes is without end, but at least she and Joy share a smooch (which Carrie watches on her Ring doorbell app) by episode's end. Small victories. Seema and LTW are also having work dramas this episode, but when are they not? I wish I cared more that Seema turned down the offer to work for Ryan Serhant (of Million Dollar Listings fame) and has to leave her office, but I just don't. It feels low-stakes and drawn-out. At this point I'm surprised we didn't get a subplot with the assistant she tried to poach who'd never heard of Jerry Maguire. LTW, meanwhile, is yelling the word 'hey!' in her sleep, causing her husband to sleep on the couch. She's anxious and hasn't hired a new editor, but a candidate called Marion might be her saving grace. But – plot twist – he's a hunky man. LTW thinks she'll get cancelled for having a man work on a series about unsung black women. 'Let's move this along, I don't want this conversation played back to me in court,' her PBS editor tells her when she speaks this ridiculous thought out loud.