Princess Margaret is reported to have had a "beautiful romance" from 1950s star Eddie Fisher. Photos / Getty Images
Princess Margaret is reported to have had a "beautiful romance" from 1950s star Eddie Fisher. Photos / Getty Images
His list of lovers makes Warren Beatty look like an amateur.
But there is one affair that 50s chart star Eddie Fisher apparently kept quiet - a dalliance with the Queen's younger sister.
The revelation comes from the US crooner's daughter and eldest of his four children - Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher - who said her father had a 'beautiful' romance with Princess Margaret.
She didn't reveal when the liaison took place but it has been suggested it may have occurred in 1952, when Fisher was 24 - and enjoying his first UK number one with Outside of Heaven - and the princess was 22, eight years before she married the Earl of Snowdon.
Fisher - whose five wives included Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds - was said to be Margaret's favourite singer and the pair were pictured together in the 50s.
Appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV, to be broadcast tomorrow, Miss Fisher, 59, said: "I met Princess Margaret once. I did. I really did. Well, they did the Empire Strikes Back and they did it over here. So we all went [to the premiere] with Alec Guinness, Harrison [Ford] and with Mark [Hamill] and as she was coming down the line I mentioned to my co-stars that my father had had sex with Princess Margaret. In a beautiful way they made love. Anyway I did mention this. I am going to get in a lot of trouble for this."
She added: "After the movie we went over to the Savoy where the party was and Harrison had arrived at the party prior to my arrival and also before Princess Margaret had arrived as well. He came up to me and said "Well clearly your father will sleep with anybody." He was joking. It was funny."
Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds with their daughter Carrie Fisher in 1957. Photo / Getty Images
In her heyday, Princess Margaret was one of the world's most glamorous women, and she certainly won Fisher's affections. Throughout the 1950s they had an occasional, and seemingly flirtatious, to and fro in the press.
During a visit to Britain in 1954 he said if she wanted him to sing at her birthday, he would happily cancel his flight that evening - no such request was forthcoming and he flew home as planned.
Princess Margaret was seemingly drawn to the world of showbusiness, with actors Peter O'Toole, David Niven and Peter Sellers all reportedly among her lovers. Others famously included Group Captain Peter Townsend, Robin Douglas-Home - nephew of former Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home - and Roddy Llewellyn, the landscape gardener 18 years her junior. Her only marriage was to photographer Lord Snowdon but they divorced after 18 years.
However, despite the stories concerning Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, this is the first time anyone has spoken publicly of a romance with Fisher. He was one of the most successful singers of the early 1950s, with 17 top ten hits in the first six years of the decade.
Outside his five marriages, he bedded some of the world's most desired women, including Joan Crawford, Edith Piaf, Kim Novak, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Mia Farrow.
Elizabeth Taylor and her fourth husband Eddie Fisher. Photo / Getty Images
He once claimed he lost his virginity to Marlene Dietrich in her mirrored bathroom even though she was 27 years his senior.
His five-year marriage to Miss Taylor was particularly rocky - she had affairs with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. The actress once recalled how after news of her affair with Burton broke, Fisher pointed a gun at her head before conceding: "I'm not going to kill you. You're too beautiful." His first wife - and Miss Fisher's mother - was Miss Reynolds, the star of Singing In The Rain. Miss Taylor, one of Miss Reynolds' closest friends, stole him from her, causing a scandal in Hollywood.
Miss Taylor had been married to Fisher's best friend, producer Mike Todd. When Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958, Miss Reynolds sent her husband to comfort Miss Taylor. He never came home.
It was not only his romances that caused scandal. In his biography, he confessed to a 40-year-long drug addiction and blamed this for the decline in his career. He died in 2010, aged 82.
