James Blunt Reveals Why He Asked Carrie Fisher to Be His Son’s Godmother

James Blunt is reflecting on his close friendship with the late Carrie Fisher — and the emotional reason why he chose her as the godmother to his child.

The “You’re Beautiful” singer’s bond with the Star Wars actress began in the early 2000s, when he recorded his debut album Back to Bedlam while living at her home in Los Angeles.

Over the years, their friendship grew, and when Blunt, 51, welcomed his first of two sons with wife Sofia, he asked Fisher to be the godmother, and tapped close pal Ed Sheeran as godfather.

Now, Blunt tells PEOPLE he had ulterior motives in selecting the Wishful Drinking author, as he hoped the role would encourage her to prioritize her own health.

“I told her everything. I told her when I met my wife, we chose engagement rings together. She’s godmother to my child. I was with her the day before she died, and it was very, very sad,” he says. “What was saddest, I suppose, is how I asked her to be godmother to my child, saying, ‘I’m asking you to do this in the hope that you’ll look after yourself a little bit better.’ And she didn’t, really.”

Fisher died in December 2016 at age 60 after going into cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles. A coroner’s report later cited sleep apnea and other undetermined factors as contributing to her death, and a toxicology report confirmed the presence of drugs in her system. Fisher’s mother, the actress Debbie Reynolds, died one day later at age 84.

Blunt paid tribute to his late friend on his 2023 album Who We Used to Be with the song “Dark Thought.” The track features lyrics about Blunt visiting Fisher’s home, only to find it empty and for sale (“I wish that you had called somebody/And if I wasn’t there, I’m sorry/You made me believe you were strong/I wish you had called me and told me that something was wrong,” he sings). 

He also wrote about the star in his 2023 memoir Loosely Based on a Made-Up Story, something he says was a “really cathartic” experience.

The pair’s bond began some 20 years ago, when Blunt was dating a family friend of Fisher’s. The group went to lunch together in London, and when he told the actress he was a musician who planned to head to L.A., she asked where he was going to live. He had no answer yet, so Fisher opened her doors.

“It was remarkable,” Blunt says. “The first three months, I didn’t speak to her. I literally didn’t. Her mom, Deborah Reynolds, was on the property. I’d see them around, but I would leave in the morning. I’d go off to the studio. I’d come back late, late, late at night, and I just didn’t speak to her.”

But things changed one night three months in, when Blunt went into the kitchen late at night. There, he found Fisher’s staff talking about the star, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 24.

“They were saying, ‘She’s having an episode,’ and that she was going mad. She needed to change her medication and maybe they needed to get help,” Blunt recalls. “What was interesting about all of this, while they were talking about her, she was in the room.”

At that point, Fisher and her houseguest began speaking in a conversation that essentially lasted for the rest of her life.

“I just could see she was just skipping between subjects rather quickly, [but] her brain was still working. Suddenly, we just had this kind of moment where I went and sat on the end of her bed, and she spoke to me until five in the morning. And the next day, I came in after the studio. I sat on the end of the bed, and we spoke until five in the morning, and we kind of did that for the rest of the time that she was alive,” he says. “She became my best friend, really, at that stage.

Blunt has released six albums since Back to Bedlam, and is setting off on the North American leg of the record’s 20th anniversary tour starting on June 12.