The Real-Life Partners Of The Sex And The City Cast
After what felt like a mountain of rumors as large as Carrie Bradshaw's shoe collection, a Sex and the City reboot has finally been confirmed for HBO Max. According to Variety, And Just Like That... follows the girls (with the absence of Kim Cattrall) for 10 episodes "as they navigate love and friendship in their 50s." Production is reportedly slated for Spring 2021, which leads us to the question, what's actually going to happen?
The cast spent six seasons and two films navigating the ups and downs (and more downs) of dating in New York City. Carrie even infamously got dumped via Post-it note, which seemed like the most egregious sin in an era before ghosting was given a name, but by the end of Sex and the City 2, the cast had mostly settled down. This isn't so dissimilar to real life.
As the main cast members navigate middle age, nearly all of them have found long term partners. Some have endured painful splits and rumors of infidelity, while others limited the drama to the screen. After all, the girls certainly had enough of it (lest we forget that Mr. Big left Carrie at the altar and hopefully paid her mountain of credit card debt as penance). Here's everything you need to know about the real life partners of the Sex and the City cast.
Sarah Jessica Parker's love story with Matthew Broderick has spanned decades
Carrie Bradshaw had a tough time finding love. Throughout Sex and the City's six seasons, she went out with at least 28 different guys, and that's not including those she merely mentioned and we didn't see on-screen. She was dumped in a Post-it note (Jack Berger), left at the altar (Mr. Big), and fell for a self-absorbed, career-obsessed artist (Aleksandr Petrovsky), which is an undeniable right of passage for most single women in the Big Apple.
In real life, SJP's love life is notably less turbulent. For much of the '80s, Parker dated Robert Downey Jr. Shortly after they split in 1991, the Divorce star met her husband Matthew Broderick, who's best known for his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Though they've been married since 1997 and share three children, Parker and Broderick have been subject to a number of salacious (and seemingly bogus) rumors, including those of Broderick's alleged infidelity and other general marriage woes. Nonetheless, the couple appears to be as strong as ever, as of this writing
In 2018, Parker admitted that their long-lasting marriage actually benefits from their busy careers. "I always felt that I wanted to invest more [in the relationship], she told Girlboss Radio, adding, "I love him, and I think he's brilliant. I'm sure I annoy him. He annoys me sometimes. I'm enormously proud of the person he is. I think the longer you can last, the more invested you just are."
Mr. Big found love at the bar — his bar
Mr. Big, played by Chris Noth, began his tenure on Sex and the City as what can only be described in modern terms as a "f**cboi," a term Urban Dictionary defines as: "A complete jerk who flirts with multiple girls at a time and makes them all believe they're individually special. ... Someone who should not be trusted and is the reason for a lot of people's trust issues." Although, in fairness, Big eventually tied the knot with Carrie after she nixed her dream wedding and settled for a small, casual brunch reception. In real life, Noth is much more of a family man, but he still took his time to settle down.
According to Hello!, Noth married Tara Wilson in 2012, about three years after they got engaged and four years after they had their first child. Though she's an actor best known for films like The Butterfly Effect, most of her work has been limited to small roles and TV cameos. It wasn't even Hollywood that pushed this couple together. When they first met in 2002, Wilson was actually an employee at Noth's NYC bar, the Cutting Room.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wilson welcomed the pair's second child in 2020. The actor, who is 28 years younger than her husband, plans to remain a working mom. She's set to appear in the 2021 Netflix series Firefly Lane.
Activism brought Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni together
Considering her on-screen character's career as a lawyer, it only makes sense that Cynthia Nixon would wind up as one half of New York City's ultimate power couple. The actor, who ran for governor in 2018, tied the knot with education activist Christine Marinoni in 2012. According to The New York Times, Marinoni is a longtime mover and shaker who served "as a neighborhood organizer in the Bronx" before obtaining a degree in economic development from Columbia University and spearheading the Alliance for Quality Education.
According to the Daily News, Nixon split from Danny Mozes, "her boyfriend of 15 years," right before meeting Marinoni through the alliance in 2003. Mozes and Nixon share two children, who ultimately took kindly to their mother's relationship. In 2008, Nixon told ABC News, "They love her. They call her Mom. They call me Mommy. My son is very funny ... He just says Mom and whoever answers is fine."
Per Access, Nixon and Marioni "announced their engagement at a rally for same-sex marriage" in 2009 after Nixon's battle with breast cancer went public. They tied the knot in 2012, the year after New York passed the Marriage Equality Act, and welcomed a son in 2011. "I had been with men all my life and I had never met a woman I had fallen in love with before," Nixon told Mirror. "But when I did, it didn't seem so strange."
David Eigenberg met his wife in the military
Even though Steve Brady cheated on Miranda Hobbes, he still somehow remains one of Sex and the City's most loveable boyfriends. Today, actor who played him, David Eigenberg, has gone beyond the bartender with a starring role as Lt. Christopher Herrmann in NBC's Chicago Fire, which hits a little closer to home. Prior to fame, the actor was actually an enlisted marine — and that's sort of how he met his wife, a fellow military babe, Chrysti Eigenberg (nee Kotik).
According to USO, Eisenberg served in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming an actor. Years later, the effects of 9/11 inspired him to join a tour with the United Service Organizations (USO), a military charity that provides live entertainment to military personnel and their families. That's where he met Chrysti, who describes herself on Twitter as a "veteran," "average mom," and "obviously a Democrat." According to Us Weekly, the pair tied the knot in 2002 and share two kids.
Kim Cattrall prefers 'em young(er) just like Samantha Jones
Like her character Samantha Jones, Kim Cattrall is one of the few Sex and the City cast members who isn't married — but that's not to say she was never married. It's actually quite the opposite. According to Us Weekly, the 60-something actress has three former husbands: Larry Davis, who had their marriage annulled in 1979; Andrew J. Lyson, who she lived with in Germany until their 1989 divorce; and audio designer Mark Levison, who she divorced in 2004. She later told News.com.au that SATC destroyed her last marriage because she "was never home."
As of this writing, things seem different for the actress, who has finally separated herself from the iconic series and found lasting love. According to The Sun, she's been dating Russell Thomas, who's 14 years her junior, since 2016. It would seem her penchant for younger men comes from spending a lot of time as Samantha.
While we don't know a whole lot about Thomas, Cattrall dished to The Sun that they met while "he was working at the BBC." They started following each other on Twitter, and he slid into her DMs. Cattrall also told People that they connect over their British heritage. She's from Liverpool, he's from Kent, and both of them start their mornings together with a cup of tea. "I love him," she told People. "And he was worth waiting for."
Kristin Davis seems committed to the single life
Charlotte York was Sex and the City's most idealistic single. The character was veritably obsessed with finding a husband and having her happily ever after, which only came when she ditched the imagined idea of her perfect husband and started dating someone who didn't fit the mold. In real life, Kristin Davis isn't anything like Charlotte. She's actually a bit more like Samantha. The star never married and isn't focused on tying the knot.
In the past, Davis has been romantically linked to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, fashion photographer Russell James, and Billions actor Damian Lewis. Haute Living also lists Alec Baldwin, Reed Diamond, and Liev Schreiber as rumored exes, but despite her occasional alleged boyfriends, Davis is hyper-focused on raising her two children, Gemma and Wilson. Today reports that she adopted them in 2011 and 2018, respectively.
"Now I have a baby and I have to put her first and think about what she needs, and stability is a huge, huge part of that," she told Haute Living in 2013, adding, "I do have friends who have stable marriages, and I look at them and admire what they have, but I don't necessarily think I've ever had that kind of relationship ... In a lot of ways, I am [independent] and men don't like that."
At the time of this writing, Davis hasn't been linked to anyone since Sorkin.
Jason Lewis found love with his ex-assistant
Smith Jerrod was the one man who managed to tame Samantha Jones, albeit temporarily. Though Sex and the City's resident dreamboat never got his wedding, the actor who played him, Jason Lewis, finally will. According to People, he proposed to his longtime girlfriend Liz Godwin, an actress and producer, at the end of 2019 — so who is she?
According to Today, the couple met at a party four years before Lewis got down on one knee. Godwin isn't as high profile as her husband-to-be, though she's acted in a handful of projects, including the thrillers Along Came the Devil and Pray for Rain. There's not a lot that we know about the star, but some internet sleuthing revealed that she works with Best Buddies, an organization supporting those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Your Tango, who read her LinkedIn page before it was deleted, reported that Godwin worked on a talk radio show producing news segments, was "was signed Elite Model Management and NEXT Model Management," and served as her fiancé's "assistant" until 2018.
Beyond that, Godwin seems to be crazy in love with Lewis, telling People that he's "always felt like my childhood playdate and my adult lover, in one." "Our relationship is the most nurturing, playful and ever-evolving relationship I have ever had. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him," she said.
Evan Handler's meet-cute with his wife was straight out of SATC
In many ways, Harry Goldenblatt was the antithesis of Mr. Big; he was a model husband who supported Charlotte at every turn, even through her difficult struggle with fertility. As it turns out, Evan Handler wasn't inherently like his on-screen counterpart. The actor, who's a leukemia survivor, was hard to tie down.
In his memoir It's Only Temporary (as excerpted by the Daily News), Handler revealed that he's had 27 breakups with 10 different women and struggled with "loving a woman properly in person." He admitted to infidelities and a penchant for "compulsively hanging around sexual chat rooms" before therapy and antidepressants got him squared away. Still, his meet-cute with his wife, Elisa Atti, an Italian medical researcher who had never seen SATC, could have been ripped right out of a script from the show.
Again, from It's Only Temporary, Handler revealed that he arranged a day date with Atti at the same time he was hooking up with an old flame from the show. It just so happened that Atti's "smile, spirit, and enthusiasm sizzled" in a way that made the lifelong player want to settle down immediately. After a few more informal hangs, they parted ways, only to have their "first 'official' date four months" later. As Handler puts it: "[That] was the last day I didn't call Elisa my girlfriend, or something more."
According to People, the pair tied the knot in 2003 and welcomed a daughter in 2007.
Willie Garson built his own family
As it turns out, Stanford Blatch is actually a pretty terrible wingman. In a 2020 interview with Page Six, Willie Garson, who portrays Carrie's longtime friend, revealed that he struggled to meet people while Sex and the City was in its heyday. "At the beginning, you would approach someone at a bar and realize, 'Oh, they want to be Stanford's best friend.' They don't necessarily want to sleep with you," he said. As fans know, that title is already taken by Mrs. Bradshaw.
As of this writing, Garson's love life looks a lot different than his character's. For one, the actor is straight even though he rarely mentions it because he finds it "offensive" when actors "playing gay characters" end up "screaming that they're not gay, like that would somehow be a bad thing if they were." Beyond that, Garson firmly believes that a life partner doesn't necessarily have to be a romantic partner. Instead, he's sharing his life with Nathan, the 19-year-old son he adopted from foster care at the age of seven.
"I very much always wanted to have a child," Garson told Page Six. "I had a long relationship, off and on, for like 20 years and she never wanted to have a child, which is fine. And it was like my mid-life crisis, I really wanted a child more than anything else and I got one. We're partners, my kid and I."
After 18 years, John Corbett and Bo Derek still aren't married
Aiden Shaw, who more or less served as Carrie Bradshaw's punching bag, is undeniably one of the best guys the writer ever dated (and almost married). Then again, if things ended up working out, the series would've been pretty short. What would she have complained about to Vogue? The audacity of a pear-shaped ring in perpetuity?
As it turns out, there haven't been any wedding bells for Aiden's off-screen counterpart, John Corbett, either — but that doesn't mean there isn't love. At the time of this writing, the actor has been in a relationship with Tommy Boy actress Bo Derek for 18 years. They just never tied the knot.
Bo, who became an instant sex symbol when she donned a nude bikini in the 1979 film 10, was previously married to director John Derek. According to Fox News, the pair shared a 30-year age gap, and when he passed away from congestive heart failure, she "didn't expect to end up with anyone again." She met Corbett five years later, and they've been together ever since.
"He makes me laugh all the time. He's full of life, full of joy," she told Fox News in 2020. "I became attracted to him and I still am. We take things day by day and I think we are still there."
Ron Livingston broke his engagement (but not on a Post-it)
Ron Livingston has made a name for himself far beyond his portrayal of writer Jack Berger (i.e. the guy who dumped Carrie in a Post-it note). Today, he's best known for his work in Office Space, Swingers, and The Conjuring. His on-screen dating snafu isn't even that bad when you consider the fact that modern culture is filled with enough egregiously awful dating habits that words like ghosting, zombieing, and breadcrumbing have entered our official lexicon.
Off-screen, Livingston had an equally shocking breakup. According to Mirror, the star split from fiancée Lisa Sheridan after three years of dating. She never married and tragically died of "complications of chronic alcoholism" in 2019, according to People. Livingston moved onto actor Rosmarie DeWitt, who's best known for her roles in Rachel Getting Married, LaLa Land, Little Fires Everywhere, and the Poltergeist remake. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the couple tied the knot three years after starring together in Fox's 2006 drama Standoff. According to ABC News, they share two children, who they adopted in 2013 and 2016.
Mario Cantone and Jerry Dixon are a theater power couple
For Mario Cantone, who plays Charlotte's friend Anthony Marantino, marriage is all about mixing work and play. In 2016, the star and his partner, musical theater director Jerry Dixon, created and performed a musical production about their life together called How Long Has This Been Going On? As it turns out, it's been going on a really long time.
In an interview with Hamptons.com, Cantone revealed that he first met Dixon in 1990. Though they entered an official domestic partnership in 2009, they weren't official on paper until after more than 20 years together. "We got married in 2011, when it became legal. When Governor Cuomo said, 'Go on and get married, y'all.' So we did it," he revealed. "But, you never know what your anniversary is. It's really upsetting and annoying. With the gays, it's like, is it the first time we met? Is it the first time we went out?"
Dixon may not be a household name like Cantone, but he's prominent in the world of theater. According to his website, he attended NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. From there, he penned segments for VH1, CBS, Comedy Central, and The View; performed on Broadway in Once On This Island and Five Guys Named Moe; and directed productions at major venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. At the time of this writing, Dixon is serving as the artistic director of Village Theatre.