Could Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher’s past drug use and rapid weight loss be behind her shocking heart attack?

CARRIE Fisher is recovering in hospital after a massive heart attack.

But for family, friends and fans of the Stars Wars actress – who collapsed on a flight from London to LAX yesterday - the worrying news may not come as a surprise.

The 60-year-old has had a series of health issues all her life, battling addiction to cocaine and prescription medicine and yo-yoing weight since first shooting to stardom as a 19-year-old.

She has also revealed a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and has said her drug use was a way of “dialling down” the manic side of her mental illness.

Born into Hollywood royalty, as the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, Carrie was destined for life on the silver screen.

But her most iconic role, as Princess Leia in Star Wars, was to lead her into a life of partying and drugs which kick-started a damaging addiction.

Carrie role in the 1977 sci-fi blockbuster made her a household name but by the time she came to shoot the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, two years later she was addicted to cocaine and even snorting on set.

In 2010 she admitted: “"We did cocaine on the set of Empire in the ice planet.

"I didn't even like coke that much. It was just a case of getting on whatever train I needed to take to get high.”

She added: “Slowly I realized I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter..

“If I’d been addicted to booze I’d be dead now, because you just go out and get it.”

The actress was still using cocaine on the set of The Return of The Jedi and eagle-eyed film fans recently speculated that she had one long finger-nail so she could snort coke.

She answered the accusation with her usual honesty and humour.

She tweeted: “I never used my fingernail for drugs. I used dollars or tiny spoons like any other respectable former drug addict.”

In 2005, Carrie suffered a dramatic shock with gay lobbyist and fellow addict R Gregory Stevens was found dead in her bed after a night of drug-taking.

She later told Vanity Fair she had blamed herself.

She said: “I was in shock for months.

“I thought I had killed him because it had happened on my watch and I had failed to save him.”

She also said she believed Stevens – who died of an overdose and chronic heart disease – was haunting her house and even called in an exorcist.

In 2010, she was inadvertently wrapped up in another death when 21-year-old Amy Breliant in 2010.

The young addict died of a heroin overdose after a stint staying at Carrie’s Hollywood home, while undergoing treatment from the actress’s friend and rehab expert Warren Boyd.

She was called to court over claims she was in a “joint venture” with Boyd, which her lawyers denied.

But drug addiction wasn’t the only legacy from the Star Wars movies.

When she first landed the coveted role of Princess Leia she promised to lose 10lb and she had battled with weight issues ever since.

She kept her weight down through the first three movies and her character’s gold bikini in Return of The Jedi became an iconic image.

Her weight crept up to almost 13 stone while she toured in her one woman show, Wishful Drinking, in 2008 and 2009.

In 2011, she said: “I’m fat.  All the clothes in my closet belong to another chick. They have to make a new alphabet for my bra size.”

In a cruel twist, she was told to drop 2st 7lbs when she returned to the role for the 2015 reboot, The Force Awakens.

She revealed: “They don’t want to hire all of me, only about three-quarters.

“That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because that’s how easy it is.”

Now there are fears that the rapid weight loss for the return contributed to her heart attack as crash diets can diminish heart muscles as well as fat.

Her drug issues have been exacerbated by a battle with mental health and she has previously revealed she suffered from bipolar disorder, body dysmorphia and depression.

She underwent electric shock therapy to treat the illness and admitted to self-medicating with drugs.

In 2011, she said: “Drugs made me feel normal. They contained me.”

Carrie’s personal life has hardly been a smooth ride either.

She recently revealed that she had an “intense” affair with Harrison Ford on the set of Star Wars, while he was married to first wife Mary Marquardt.

She was briefly married to Paul Simon, from 1983 to 1984, and has a 24-year-old daughter, Billie, from a relationship with agent Bryan Lourd.