Tragic Details About Kim Cattrall
When there's drama about the "Sex and the City" franchise nowadays, it seems to inevitably involve Kim Cattrall. Her absence from the reboot, "And Just Like That," has generated more discussion than if she were actually in the series, and there's no end to the speculation about tension and conflict between Cattrall and the rest of the original show's cast. Cattrall has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with that world anymore, saying on the "Women's Prize for Fiction" podcast that she "wouldn't be any good doing something that I really didn't want to do." Fair enough. Didn't her character, Samantha Jones, teach us that saying what you want is what life's all about?
Samantha was written out of the new series with vague references to the character; she was kept distantly alive through the impression that she and Carrie Bradshaw still texted each other. But when it comes to Cattrall, she's done with that chapter. Even when The Hollywood Reporter reported that two women had accused Chris Noth, who played Mr. Big, of sexual assault, Cattrall didn't weigh in on the scandal. This was deliberate.
"Kim isn't going to speak out about the Chris Noth allegations," an insider told Us Weekly. "She isn't even going to talk about not being part of 'And Just Like That,'" they added, saying that Cattrall is enjoying a "drama-free" life now. While we fully endorse Cattrall's decision to keep things stress-free, the actor hasn't always had an easy go of things. In fact, Cattrall has survived many tragic moments.
The big family secret that Kim Cattrall discovered
Kim Cattrall's roots go back to England, and she was born in Liverpool on August 21, 1956. For decades, Cattrall and her family lived with the mystery of what happened to her maternal grandfather, a man who vanished when her mother was a little girl. Cattrall went on "Who Do You Think You Are?," a reality show that helps celebrities trace their roots, to return to Liverpool and discover the "truth behind [the] 70-year-old mystery." Her grandfather, George Baugh, had deserted his wife, Marion Baugh, and their three daughters — Marjorie, Shane (mother to Cattrall), and Dorothy — after he and Marion had been married for 10 years. They didn't see him again, and he never contacted them.
After George left, Marion and her daughters were left in "one of the poorest neighborhoods in Great Britain," an area that was destitute after the Great Depression. Through some impressive detective work, Cattrall tracked down George's trail and discovered that in 1939, only one year after he left his wife and daughters, George remarried a 21-year-old woman. "Wow, he's a bigamist," Cattrall said. "I knew he was gutsy but now he's a criminal. Unbelievable." He didn't bother changing his name and moved to nearby Durham County. George had four children with his new wife, and eventually, they moved to Australia. After discovering this tragic secret, Cattrall said, "I feel that we have come full circle." But she really did it for her mom and her aunts.
The actor barely knew her extended family as a child
Kim Cattrall's father, Dennis Cattrall, was a contruction engineer who decided to move his family across the world. When Kim was just 3 months old, her family left Liverpool, a city in northwest England, to start a new life in Canada, according to Hello!. The move meant that Kim grew up without the chance to get close to the rest of her family. Speaking of her departure from England, she told The Liverpool Echo, "There are many times I think about what my life would have been like if I would have stayed." Their life in Canada was relatively isolated. "In some ways I think I would have been much happier surrounded by family," she added. "In Canada it was just us."
Her extended family, especially those still in England, is deeply important to the "Sex and the City" star. In the series "Who Do You Think You Are?," Kim said, "I come from a very strong stock of independent, strong-minded British women." She added, "Whenever I think about family, I think about Liverpool."
As she grew up, Kim would come to feel that she really missed out by not having these female family members, whom she clearly admires, involved in her life when she was a kid. "We are a very close family, but it would have been fantastic to spend afternoons with my grandma and aunties," she told The Liverpool Echo. "I would have liked living in close proximity to them, we grew up barely knowing each other."
She was never friends with the SATC cast
There's a long arc to Kim Cattrall's career, but she became a global sensation playing Samantha Jones on HBO's "Sex and the City." The show follows the lives of four best friends who live in New York City, with Jones being the most fearless of all. Tragically, the premise of close friendship was far from the truth.
There was tension, the New York Post notes, from the beginning. Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon (who played Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda Hobbes, respectively) knew each other from working on Broadway before, and Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte York, quickly joined this circle. Cattrall had one close friend, Darren Star, but the producer "was replaced by Parker's friend Michael Patrick King" before Season 3 began. This meant that Cattrall had no allies on set. Oddly enough, Cattrall's talent was the real problem. She was "a natural comedienne, and a scene-stealer in the best possible sense — the camera went right to her," Clifford Streit wrote in a book proposal from 2008, per the New York Post. Any fan of the show can confirm this. No one could carry a scene like Cattrall could; she was a comedic genius.
In 2017, long after she said "no" to more "Sex and the City" projects, Cattrall spoke with Piers Morgan on "Life Stories" and said, "We've never been friends. We've been colleagues, and in some ways, it's a very healthy place to be." It was certainly a successful professional relationship, but not an easy one in terms of camaraderie.
Kim Cattrall said she lost a marriage because of SATC
While Kim Cattrall was playing the vivacious and fearless Samantha Jones on "Sex and the City," the actor herself was married to jazz bassist Mark Levinson, according to Hello!. Levinson was Cattrall's third husband. Her first marriage was to a Canadian writer named Larry Davis, the outlet notes. They wed in 1977 and divorced in 1979. Her second marriage was to a German architect named Andre Lyson. They married in 1982 and divorced in 1989. Levinson and Cattrall tied the knot in 1998, the same year that "SATC" premiered.
Unfortunately, the demands of the show took a massive toll on her marriage to Levinson. "["Sex and the City"] cost me my marriage, because I was never home," Cattrall told news.com.au. "I was never there and my husband got lonely and upset and competitive, and it was really difficult, it was really hard," she went on, saying that she spent more time with the cast than her "real family."
They did have one creative collaboration, though. Cattrall and Levinson published a book together called "Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm" in 2002. The purpose of the book was to address a lack of female sexual satisfaction "because men don't understand women's sexual needs and sensitivities," the publisher wrote of the book. Cattrall and Levinson included intimate details from their shared perspectives. While the marriage didn't last, the book was certainly a gift to readers.
She gave up motherhood for the show
Kim Cattrall didn't just lose a marriage because of "Sex and the City." She also lost the chance of having kids. On Piers Morgan's "Life Stories," Cattrall said that she was in her "early 40s" when she was married to Mark Levinson and considering IVF. But the show was asking for so much from her that she couldn't juggle anything else. "I thought to myself, 'Wow, I have 19-hour days on this series,'" she recalled, adding that her time-consuming schedule, which seemed stressful enough without adding motherhood to the mix, also included all-nighters on the weekend. "How could I possibly continue to do that, especially in my early 40s?'" she said.
But it wasn't just the show that would have been demanding. "And then I realized what a commitment it was just to the [IVF] procedures," Cattrall continued. "I thought, 'I don't think this is going to happen.' It was the first moment — it was extraordinary — in my life where I thought, 'Maybe I'm just not going to do this.""
When Morgan asked Cattrall if she felt maternal, she said yes, but she revealed that she's discovered other ways to satisfy that feeling, including being "an auntie and a friend" and serving as a mentor for young female actors. "That has really given me so much. As much as I give, I get two-fold back," Cattrall said.
Her brother died
Kim Cattrall's brother, Chris Cattrall, went missing from his home in Blackfalds, Alberta, in February 2018, per CNN. Kim initially used her reach on social media to ask for help and to encourage locals to keep an eye out for him. Sadly, shortly after, she took to Twitter to let her concerned followers know that her brother had died. "It is with great sadness that myself and my family announce the unexpected passing of our son and brother, Chris Cattrall," she tweeted. "At this time we ask for privacy. We want to thank you all on social media for your outpouring of love and support in this trying time."
While she kept tight-lipped about Chris' death for a while, she opened up to the Daily Mail in July 2019 and confirmed that his death was a suicide. "There is a well of sadness in me," Kim told interviewer Louise Gannon, who had met the actor years prior. "I am not the woman who met you in New York. That was me before this terrible thing happened and this is me after. I am different now and I will never be the same."
"No one can prepare you," Kim added. She revealed that Chris had been struggling with depression, and while she was unaware of this until after his death, she was haunted by "endless questions" about what she could have possibly done differently to help her brother. She described the pain of living with the loss as her "new reality."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
She found Sarah Jessica Parker challenging after the death of her brother
To make matters even more challenging, while Kim Cattrall was grieving the death of her brother, conversation in the media centered around her feud with Sarah Jessica Parker. Initially, Cattrall posted a message of gratitude on Twitter, which included the "Sex and the City" cast, for supporting her through her pain. Parker was one of the cast who sent condolences, apparently privately as well as on social media.
However, a few days later, on February 10, 2018, Cattrall used Instagram to share a message that read, "I don't need your love or support at this tragic time [Sarah Jessica Parker]." In the caption, Cattrall explained her message. "My Mom asked me today 'When will that [Sarah Jessica Parker], that hypocrite, leave you alone?'" Cattrall began. "Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."
Cattrall then added a link to a New York Post article entitled "Inside the mean-girls culture that destroyed 'Sex and the City.'" Parker did not respond to this, as Entertainment Weekly notes, but she did speak to People about earlier comments made by Cattrall, calling them "really hurtful." Parker added that the two women shared an amazing experience on the show, and nothing could change that.