Love knows no age, but in the case of Harrison Ford, it was also a matter of second chances. After a costly divorce and two decades of a life built, the actor proved that the heart doesn’t retire. Since 2010, the Indiana Jones star has defied the age gap with Calista Flockhart, forming one of Hollywood’s most enduring couples.
The 83-year-old actor and the 61-year-old actress first met at the 2002 Golden Globes. Some say she deliberately spilled her wine on his suit to get his attention; others, that it actually happened that way. But what is certain is that it broke the ice.
Twenty-two years after that encounter at the table at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, the actress – who was 38 at the time – revealed in an interview with The Times what she thought when she first saw him: “I had never seen Star Wars, which I know sounds crazy… But I grew up in a minor town without a movie theater… I knew who Harrison Ford was! But I didn’t think: ‘Oh, this is Indiana Jones.’ It was more like: ‘This is a lascivious old man, and what is he doing at our table?’”
Following that initial meeting, Ford asked her out. However, nerves got the better of her: intimidated by the idea of being alone with a film legend, Calista asked her friend James Marsden (her co-star on Ally McBeal) to accompany her as “reinforcements.” Marsden amusingly recounted how he became the unexpected “third wheel” throughout the evening. From dinner to a later conversation at the actor’s house, Ford kept shooting him knowing glances with the intention of getting him to exit.
Though they kept the connection secret for several months, in July 2002 they appeared together and hand-in-hand on the red carpet at the premiere of Ford’s film, K-19: The Widowmaker. However, it wasn’t until a year after they met that he openly expressed his feelings. “I’m in love… Romantic love is one of the most exciting and fulfilling kinds of love, and I think it has potential at any stage of life. I wasn’t surprised that I was able to fall in love, and I wasn’t surprised that I did. But I am very grateful,” he told People magazine at the time.
After seven years of a solid relationship and a harmonious cohabitation, the couple had built a true home. Harrison Ford had fully integrated into raising Liam — the son Calista had adopted shortly before they met — and his own older children had naturally blended into this new family. Eager to postpone no longer, the actor chose Valentine’s Day 2009 to propose marriage. The definitive “yes” came on June 15, 2010, in an intimate ceremony at the New Mexico governor’s residence.
Recently, the actor revealed the secret to maintaining a stable marriage for 15 years. At the 32nd SAG Actor Awards, Harrison Ford received an emotional tribute to his career and didn’t hesitate to point to his wife as his fundamental pillar. With his characteristic sense of humor, the actor revealed that the ‘golden rule’ of their relationship is simple but unwavering: “I don’t tell my wife what to do.”
Mary Marquardt, the love of his youth
In 1964, when he was 23, Harrison Ford married Mary Marquardt, the former chef who accompanied him during his early steps as an actor, and with whom he became the father of Ben and Willard. According to the actor’s biographers, she was one of the people who most encouraged him to dedicate himself to acting when he was still a shy and aimless young man.
Whereas the reasons are unknown, the separation occurred shortly after Ford achieved worldwide stardom with Star Wars (1977), supposedly generating tensions in the relationship due to the change in lifestyle.
Melissa Mathison, mother of Malcolm and Georgia
After meeting years earlier in the Philippines, they reconnected in Tunisia during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison was fascinated by Melissa’s brilliance, who in that desert began writing the screenplay for E.T. at Spielberg’s request. They married on March 14, 1983, in a private civil ceremony in Santa Monica. Their relationship lasted 18 years, although their marriage ended three years later, and from that union were born their two children, Malcolm and Georgia.
Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford’s secret love
During the filming of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1976, Harrison had an intense and brief three-month romance with his co-star, who was only 19 at the time. This relationship, which remained hidden for four decades, was revealed by the actress herself in her 2016 memoirs, The Princess Diarist.
