Carrie Fisher Relapsed On Drugs Before Death? 'Star Wars' Icon Struggled To Remain Sober, Coach Says

“Star Wars” icon Carrie Fisher struggled with sobriety before her death Tuesday, her sober coach told Radar Online in an exclusive interview Wednesday. The actress was open about her addiction.

Fisher, 60, felt “pressure” when she started to film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which hit theaters last year. “There was a little pressure on her when she was making the new Star Wars, she had to go to England to film it,” her sober coach, Clancy Imislund, 88, told Radar Online. “She called me every week from the set to tell me what was going on.”

Fisher was “stalwart in her efforts to recover and she’s had a lot of personal problems,” Imislund said. Still, the process was “very difficult for her.”

Fisher, who had bipolar disorder, was an advocate for mental health awareness. “I used to think I was a drug addict, pure and simple — just someone who could not stop taking drugs willfully,” Fisher told Diane Sawyer in 1995. “And I was that. But it turns out that I am severely manic depressive.”

It took her four years to accept her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, she wrote in a column for the Guardian, which was published last month. “I was told that I was bipolar when I was 24 but was unable to accept that diagnosis until I was 28 when I overdosed and finally got sober. Only then was I able to see nothing else could explain away my behavior,” Fisher penned.

Sobriety wasn’t easy for the star, who was best known for portraying Princess Leia. “All in, I’ve had about four or five slips since I started going to 12-step support groups at the age of 28, making that four or five slip ups in 23 years, which is not great,” she once said.

Fisher died days after she had a heart attack on a plane from London to Los Angeles. She was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, but never regained consciousness. She is survived by her daughter, Billie Lourd, her brother, Todd, sisters Tricia and Joely and her mother, Debbie Reynolds.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella