Carrie Fisher autopsy reveals cocaine, ecstasy

Carrie Fisher had a cocktail of drugs in her system that included cocaine and ecstasy when she suffered a fatal mid-air heart attack, a coroner’s report revealed on Monday.

The Star Wars actress — who catapulted to stardom as the space epic’s rebel warrior Princess Leia — was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles on Dec 23 after collapsing on a flight from London, and was pronounced dead four days later.

There were quantities of alcohol and opiates in her system, according to the toxicology report, which suggested “exposure to heroin, but that the dose and time of exposure cannot be pinpointed”.

Tests revealed the cocaine would have been taken within the previous three days, according to the report, which gave the cause of death as sleep apnoea — a breathing disorder — and “other undetermined factors” including heart disease and “multiple-drug intake”.

They also showed “remote exposure” to the recreational drug MDMA, better known in its pill form as ecstasy.

A press release from the coroner’s office on Friday indicated that drugs were found in 60-year-old Fisher’s system, but it did not go into detail.

“Ms Fisher suffered what appeared to be a cardiac arrest on the airplane, accompanied by vomiting and with a history of sleep apnoea,” the final report stated.

“Based on the available toxicological information, we cannot establish the significance of the multiple substances that were detected in Ms. Fisher’s blood and tissue, with regard to the cause of death.”

Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, said in a statement released to celebrity magazine

People on Friday her mother had “battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life” and “ultimately died of it”.

The early 1980s were marked by problems with alcohol, drugs and depression for Fisher, who became known for her searingly honest semi-autobiographical writing.

She turned her best-selling debut Post

cards From The Edge into a film of the same name in 1990 starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Fisher was returning from the London leg of a tour promoting her headline-grabbing memoir The Princess Diarist when she collapsed 15 minutes before landing in Los Angeles, where paramedics and hospital staff were unable to revive her.

Reynolds, who was 84, suffered a fatal stroke the day after her daughter’s death.