Melissa Mathison: The Life Of Harrison Ford's Ex-Wife & What She Did After Their Divorce

Unless you're a film enthusiast or deeply rooted in pop culture, there's a pretty big chance you've never heard of Melissa Mathison. You probably know her ex-husband, though: Harrison Ford, actor extraordinaire known for blockbuster franchises like "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," and "Blade Runner." Ford and Mathison were married for just over two decades, although they rarely made appearances together or spoke about each other. 

While Mathison was legally tied to one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars and led a pretty private life without drama or controversy (as far as we know, anyway), her transformation was an interesting one in and of itself. Mathison came from a background more privileged than most, yet she managed to carve out a career almost entirely on her own merits. For someone who contributed to some of the most celebrated films ever made, Mathison lived rather modestly for a force in show business.

Melissa Mathison was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 3, 1950. She was one of five children; her siblings are Dirk Mathison, Mark Mathison, Stephanie Mathison, and Melina Johnson. She grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Providence High School, an independent Catholic preparatory institution, in 1968. 

In retrospect, considering who her parents were, it made sense that Mathison eventually became a celebrated screenwriter. Richard Randolph Mathison, her father, was a journalist and religion editor for the Los Angeles Times in his heyday; he later served as the Los Angeles bureau chief for Newsweek. Her mother, Margaret Jean "Pegeen" Mathison, worked as a food writer and entrepreneur. 

"We weren't your mainstream '50s family," Mathison told the Los Angeles Times in 1995. "Both my parents had wonderful, eccentric, artistic friends who treated us as friends as well. How your mind worked was considered important."

The entire Francis Ford Coppola nepo baby network is complicated, but believe it or not, it includes Melissa Mathison. No, Mathison and Coppola are not related. Instead, Mathison's family knew Coppola's, since they reportedly lived in the same neighborhood. As a pre-teen and teenager, Mathison babysat Coppola's children. 

In 2015, Coppola told TIME that over time (no pun intended), he "became aware of her inquiring mind and interesting opinions" and described Mathison as "exuberant and full of fun." While a student at UC Berkeley, Coppola recruited Mathison to work as a production assistant for what became one of the biggest films of his career: "The Godfather Part II" (1974). 

According to Coppola's wife, Eleanor (via The Guardian), his relationship with Mathison allegedly developed into a full-blown affair by the late '70s. Eleanor and Coppola were married from 1963 until she died in 2024. She wrote about the affair in a diary-turned-memoir, "Notes on the Making of Apocalypse Now."

As Francis Ford Coppola told TIME in 2015, he recognized Melissa Mathison's natural talent almost immediately and suggested she write a screenplay. "She loved writers and writing, knew a lot and read a lot—and she was anxious to learn, although a little timid concerning her own abilities," Coppola explained. With a couple of nudges, Mathison completed her first work in the late 1970s. 

This screenplay ended up becoming "The Black Stallion" (1979), an adaptation of Walter Farley's 1971 novel; she was credited alongside Jeanne Rosenberg and William D. Witliff. The film starred former child actor Kelly Reno, Teri Garr, and Mickey Rooney (with the latter briefly involved in one of Hollywood's most scandalous affairs himself). "The Black Stallion" was a huge success: It grossed approximately $37.8 million against a $2.7 million budget and entered the National Film Registry in 2022.

"Francis said, 'You can do this,' and that was it," Mathison later remarked to the Los Angeles Times. "We all agreed the movie should be like a children's book, with just pictures. That's when I learned to take out the words, to tell the story visually, which is the best training there is."

Picture it: Tunisia, 1980. According to an interview Steven Spielberg once gave to Entertainment Weekly, this is when and where he first met Melissa Mathison. "When I realized she had written 'The Black Stallion', it stopped me in my tracks because it's one of my favorite movies," Spielberg revealed. "I started asking her a lot of questions about 'The Black Stallion.'"

By this time, Spielberg had an idea to make a movie about an alien stuck on Earth. Based on what Spielberg later told EW, he immediately knew he wanted Mathison to write the screenplay for what would become one of his most recognized works: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." Although Mathison initially refused the offer ("That's really sweet and interesting, but I've retired," Spielberg quoted her as saying), she eventually came around. The rest, as they say, was history.

While Mathison didn't partake in a lot of interviews, she described Spielberg as "a wonderful person" in 1982 (via YouTube). "Lots of fun. He's brilliant. He's hardworking. He's curious and helpful and serious and silly. He's a good friend."

We briefly mentioned Francis Ford Coppola's movie "Apocalypse Now." However, we skipped over one of the most interesting behind-the-scenes facts: Melissa Mathison met her future husband, Harrison Ford, on set. Mathison was an executive production assistant; Ford had a small role as a Colonel. While "Apocalypse Now" was released in 1979, it was actually shot between March 1976 and May 1977. 

While Ford and Mathison seemed to form a quick connection, their relationship was purely platonic at first. At the time, Ford was married to his first wife, Mary Marquardt; they tied the knot in 1964 and welcomed two sons in 1966 and 1969. Ford and Marquardt eventually divorced in 1979 due to a combination of factors, such as Ford's rising stardom from "Star Wars." His co-star, Carrie Fisher, later alleged that she had a months-long affair with Ford in 1976 — she was 19, while Ford was 33.

By the early 1980s, Harrison Ford was a household name, while Melissa Mathison was accomplished in her own right. After writing "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," Mathison co-wrote the screenplay for "The Escape Artist," a mystery drama directed by Caleb Deschanel (the father of actors Emily and Zooey Deschanel). 

While Mathison and Spielberg's project was a slam dunk, "The Escape Artist" took several years to finish and received mostly negative reviews. At the time, film critic Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "The movie that surrounds [Danny, the main character] is a tentative mess, not quite a fantasy, not quite an adventure, not quite a comedy, not quite coherent on any level. The narrative line is even more of a jumble."

Anyway, Ford and Mathison's relationship deepened around this time, with the pair officially together by 1982. They got married in March 1983; Ford was 40, while Mathison was 32. Ford and Mathison kept the ceremony under wraps (and almost everything about their personal lives, actually), although Mathison told Newsweek in 1995 that they lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

While Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" single-handedly changed the science-fiction genre as we know it, "Twilight Zone: The Movie" made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Three actors sadly passed away on set in one of the worst movie accidents on record. In the aftermath, Steven Spielberg publicly cut ties with John Landis, while George Miller completely abandoned what remained of production. 

To be clear, "Twilight Zone: The Movie" was an anthology split like a season of "The Twilight Zone." Four separate stories were told, with Spielberg, Landis, Miller, and Joe Dante as the respective directors. You wouldn't know it by the original film credits, but Melissa Mathison co-wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's portion, "Kick the Can." She was credited as Josh Rogan.

As one might be able to guess, Mathison deliberately used the pseudonym because of the aforementioned tragedy and all the controversy that arose from it. Another member of the production, second assistant director Andy House, used the pseudonym Alan Smithee. 

You probably know the saying: First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes baby in a baby carriage. Children usually say this to tease another. In Melissa Mathison and Harrison Ford's case, this was the natural progression of their relationship. Mathison gave birth to their first child, Malcolm Ford, on October 3, 1987.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Malcolm made waves as the frontman for The Dough Rollers, a blues group formed in 2008. The Dough Rollers spoke to Interview Magazine in 2013, by which time Malcolm lived in New York. "I didn't grow up with music in the house ... My mom would have Wagner on sometimes, but I got into punk music first," he revealed. He also admitted, "Usually I call a practice and everyone but me shows up."

While Malcolm broke some ground as a musician, he appears to live privately now with no confirmed social media. The last time we saw Malcolm was in March 2026, when he attended the Ojai Food + Wine Festival to support his older brother Ben, a chef. 

Melissa Mathison and Harrison Ford's second child, Georgia Ford, was born on June 30, 1990; out of Ford's five kids, Georgia is the second youngest and the only girl. While Georgia hasn't exactly followed in either of her parents' footsteps, she does have a couple of acting credits to her name. Georgia first appeared in the 2013 film "American Milkshake." She then earned small roles in "True Story" (2015), "The Visitor" (2016), and "I'm Being Me" (2020). She hasn't appeared in anything since.

Georgia generally lives her life out of the spotlight, but she has a pretty lucrative job as a photo producer at Interview Magazine. She showcases her work on a dedicated Instagram page. Prior to this, Georgia obtained a master's degree from the London College of Fashion and worked for Selfridges and LOLA Production. She lived in England for nine years before relocating back to the States. 

Melissa Mathison wrote three screenplays in the 1990s, with one of them being "Kundun." Directed by Martin Scorsese, the biopic was initially released in December 1997 and followed the early life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who became the 14th Dalai Lama as a child and was later exiled from Tibet. 

"I am sort of famous for little-boy stories, and this was a fantastic little-boy story, a story of destiny and nurturing and tragedy," Mathison told The New York Times in 1996. "The idea of finding a 2-year-old child and then investing in him everything that is good about human beings, your people and your beliefs."

Over time, Mathison and the Dalai Lama struck a pretty close friendship. Mathison wasn't the only one who bonded with the Dalai Lama in the '90s, actually: so did Richard Gere and Sharon Stone (there's a lot of things you probably never knew about Stone, on that note). In 2011, Mathison interviewed the Dalai Lama at length for Rolling Stone. "Peace must be built by humans, through action. So that means, whenever we face problem — dialogue. That's the only way," His Holiness remarked at one point. 

Melissa Mathison's experience with "Kundun" didn't just lead to a friendship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but also opened up the world of philanthropy. In 1995, Mathison joined the Board of Directors of the International Campaign for Tibet. Founded in 1988, the non-profit organization promotes peace, education, and human rights. Mathison served on the board for 20 years. 

In 1998, Mathison and Martin Scorsese won the International Campaign for Tibet's Light of Truth Award, which they received for their work on "Kundun." While the rest of Mathison's philanthropic efforts have remained mum, several funds have been established in her honor. In 2016, the Hamptons International Film Festival established the Melissa Mathison Fund for its annual Screenwriters Lab. "By choosing emerging female screenwriters to participate through this fund in Melissa's name, her legacy will endure for generations to come," executive director Anne Chaisson said at the time.

For a notoriously private couple, Melissa Mathison and Harrison Ford's breakup couldn't stay out of the news. The pair originally announced that they were separated in November 2000, although they reportedly got back together in April 2001. This reunification was extremely brief, though: Mathison filed for divorce in August 2001. At the time, a spokesperson for Ford said (via ABC News), "The couple is very friendly and everything is very amicable."

Mathison and Ford's divorce was eventually finalized in 2004. Why did it take so long if things were uncontested? Well, it turned out that the couple did not have a prenup. This meant that Mathison was entitled to a substantial amount of Ford's wealth, including proceeds from the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises. Mathison reportedly walked away with a $118 million payout, which is worth roughly $209 million in 2026. 

While Mathison never remarried, Ford established one of the more successful age-gap relationships in Hollywood with Calista Flockhart. The pair started dating in 2002, married in 2010, and have remained together since. Ford and Flockhart are 22 years apart and share one child from Flockhart's previous relationship, whom Ford adopted. 

In the United States, there are Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. In Japan, there's Studio Ghibli. Established in 1985, Studio Ghibli films have become a worldwide phenomenon in their own right: popular titles over the years have included "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988), "Spirited Away" (2001), "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004), and "The Boy and the Heron" (2023). 

Of course, let's not forget "Ponyo." Originally released in July 2008, the film follows the adventures of Ponyo, a magical fish, and Sōsuke, a boy who discovers her on the beach. The movie was a smash hit across the board: It grossed over $200 million worldwide and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Nearly 20 years later, "Ponyo" remains one of the best-selling anime films of all time. 

While the original movie was written (and directed) by Hayao Miyazaki, the screenplay for its English dub was written by Melissa Mathison; she also served as a storyboard consultant. "Miyazaki-san was quite intrigued with Melissa getting involved," producer Kathleen Kennedy told Variety in 2009. "She found a subtle adjustment to the language so that you understand you're watching a Japanese movie but, at the same time, you're not getting confused by a literal translation."

After "Ponyo," Melissa Mathison lived as much of a quiet life as one could expect, given her famous profession and ex-husband. If Mathison struck up any relationships or took any luxurious vacations, we weren't told about them. Mathison only hit headlines a few times, and for non-professional matters too: She moved to New York City in 2008 and sold her Malibu home in 2013.  

Mathison died on November 4, 2015. She was 65 years old and had been diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, an uncommon form that affects nerve-like cells, at an unspecified date. "Melissa had a heart that shined with generosity and love and burned as bright as the heart she gave 'E.T.'," Steven Spielberg stated upon her death (via CBS News). The International Campaign for Tibet's statement included, "Through both her personal and professional life, she contributed greatly to putting the spotlight on the plight of the Tibetan people."

Melissa Mathison earned her last credit posthumously. In 2014, Mathison wrote the screenplay for "The BFG," an adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1982 children's book. For those who were never assigned the novel as required summer reading, the classic story revolves around Sophie, an orphan who strikes up a friendship with the BFG, aka the Big Friendly Giant. 

Directed by Steven Spielberg, "The BFG" was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016 and officially released in July 2016. The movie was dedicated to her. "She put her poetry in this. Everything Melissa was in her life — she devoted that wealth of wisdom and patience and deep consciousness to the writing," Spielberg told The Hollywood Reporter before the film's release. "This really is her movie."

"The BFG" was moderately successful, all things considered. The movie was technically labeled a box office failure because it only grossed $194.6 million against a $140 million budget, but it received generally positive reviews. It was nominated for 26 awards in total, with Mathison posthumously nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Writing in 2017.