Paul Simon: Short-lived marriage to Carrie Fisher was ‘exhausting’

Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher tied the knot in 1983 and divorced the following summer. Photos: Handout, TNS

Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher's short-lived 1980s marriage was, in the words of the folk icon, "mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes," as noted in footage shown in the new docuseries about the Simon & Garfunkel co-founder.

Paul Simon fans are getting a peek behind the curtain of his “exhausting” marriage to the late Carrie Fisher.

The Queens-raised Grammy winner, 82, met the Star Wars icon as she was filming the first instalment in the franchise. They tied the knot in 1983 and divorced the following summer.

“I mean, what was I thinking? Certainly not thinking about life, you know, that you actually like have to stop,” the Simon & Garfunkel co-founder says in an old interview shown in MGM+’s documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon.

Noting that the When Harry Met Sally actress “was much more show business-oriented” as the daughter of screen legend Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, Simon said he “went along with that.”

“She was used to it,” he said. “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.”

The singer-songwriter added that “marriage is ... a hard thing to do.

“Not everything can happen at once, not everything is a media event. All types of mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes,” said Simon. “I realised I could become exhausted by — I could exhaust myself from emotional upheaval.”

Divorce was not the end of the road for Simon and Fisher, who spent years in an on-and-off romance.

Fisher, who died after suffering a heart attack before Christmas 2016, was remembered by Simon at the time as “a special, wonderful girl.”

“Yesterday was a horrible day,” he tweeted on the heels of her death. “It’s too soon.”

In 1992, Simon tied the knot with singer Edie Brickell, with whom he shares three adult children. Through her relationship with talent agent Bryan Lourd, Fisher welcomed a daughter, Booksmart. star Billie Lourd. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service