Carrie Fisher’s Daughter Blames James Blunt for Mom’s Death, He Says in Memoir

James Blunt—the singer, songwriter and longtime friend of the late Carrie Fisher—says the Star Wars star’s daughter, Billie Lourd, partially blames him for her mother’s death, according to excerpts of Blunt’s memoir, Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story, published by The Sun.

“I was closer to Carrie than almost anyone else in the world, except my wife,” Blunt wrote of the pair’s relationship.

Blunt was with Fisher when she was found unresponsive just days before she passed away in 2017. A toxicology report found that she had used cocaine in the days prior to her death and that she had heroin, MDMA and methadone in her system. The report declined to state the definitive cause of death, but Lourd has attributed it to her mother’s battle with substance abuse.

“My mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life,” Lourd told PEOPLE at the time. “She ultimately died of it. She was purposefully open in all of her work about the social stigmas surrounding these diseases.”

In his memoir, Blunt described his failure to confront Fisher over her drug abuse, opting instead to partake in substances with her.

“Charlie, her best friend, confronted her more directly and told her she needed to quit drugs… I took a different approach and did them with her, pretending to myself that I would guide her to redemption one day—just not today,” Blunt wrote. “As a result, her—daughter Billie blames me in part for her death, and no longer speaks to me.”