The feud between Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker seems as though it will never end.
While starring alongside one other in Sex and the City across six seasons and two films about four single friends living in New York, which were released between 1998 to 2010, the pair fell out. Cattrall kickstarted the public spat in October 2017, when she shocked fans by claiming that she was “never friends” with her co-star.
Since then, the pair have engaged in a war of words regarding the matter, which seemed to come to a head when Parker, who stars as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw, returned alongside Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbs) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte York) in HBO’s spin-off series And Just Like That. Cattrall, however, did not appear in her fan-favourite role as the sexually adventurous publicist, Samantha Jones.
Until now. This week, Cattrall will return to her role as Samantha for a brief scene in the finale of And Just Like That season two. However, Cattrall filmed the cameo without seeing any of her former co-stars.
Below we run through a timeline of the knotty feud between Cattrall and Parker.
September 2017: After much discussion among fans, Parker confirms that a third Sex and the City movie is not going to happen, despite prior rumours to the contrary. “It’s over,” she said. “I’m disappointed. We had this beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story.” Davis, on Instagram, added: “I wish that we could have made the final chapter, on our own terms, to complete the stories of our characters. It is deeply frustrating not to be able to share that chapter with all of you.” Fans then begin to speculate that Cattrall is the reason the film is unable to go ahead.
Anonymous sources told TheDaily Mail that the actor had held up production on the sequel, as she had wanted her own solo projects financed by Warner Bros in exchange for her participation in the film. This, Cattrall wrote on Twitter, was not true. “Woke up to a MailOnline s***storm,” she tweeted. “The only ‘DEMAND’ I ever made was that I didn’t want to do a third film.... and that was back in 2016.”
October 2017: Cattrall says she was “never friends” with Sarah Jessica Parker, telling Piers Morgan’s Life Stories that the pair had a “toxic relationship”. She makes the claims in an attempt to clear up why she didn’t appear in a third Sex and the City film, which she says Parker “could have been nicer” about. “We’ve never been friend,” she said, adding: “We’ve been colleagues and in some ways it’s a very healthy place to be because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal.”
1 February 2018: Sarah Jessica Parker responds to Kim Cattrall’s description of their relationship, telling What What Happens Live host Andy Cohen: “I mean that whole week, you and I spoke about it because I was just... I don’t know, I found it really upsetting because that’s, you know, that’s not the way I recall our experience.” Sharing her view on their working relationship, she added: “I always think that what ties us together is this singular experience is the thing. It was a professional experience but it became personal because it was years and years of our lives. So I’m hoping that that sort of eclipses anything that’s been recently spoken.”
Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker photographed in 2009— (Getty Images)
10 February 2018: Kim Cattrall hits out at “cruel” Sarah Jessica Parker after her former co-star offers her condolences following the death of Cattrall’s brother. She wrote: “My Mom asked me today ‘When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone? 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.”
26 February 2018: Speaking to People, Sarah Jessica Parker says she “never responded” to Kim Cattrall’s “really hurtful” claims made in October 2017. She stated: “We had this experience and it was amazing, and nothing will ever be like it. There was no fight; it was completely fabricated, because I actually never responded. And I won’t, because she needed to say what she needed to say, and that is her privilege”
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January 2021: Sarah Jessica Parker announces Sex and the City spin-off series And Just Like That..., and when a fan says they “will miss Kim/Samantha”, the actor replied: “We will too. We loved her so. X”.
9 December 2021: And Just Like That... premieres and addresses Kim Cattrall’s absence in a scene that sees Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw reveal that Samantha ended their friendship. “It’s kind of like she’s dead – we never talk about her,” Carrie says, adding: “She stopped returning my calls.” Miranda (Nixon) replies: “Her pride got damaged,” with Carrie stating: “I thought I was more to her than an ATM. I always thought the four of us would be friends forever."
Sarah Jessica Parker returned as Carrie in ‘And Just Like That...'— (HBO)
11 December 2021: Kim Cattrall likes a variety of tweets criticising And Just like That..., one of which reads: “Kim Cattrall didn’t return to SATC because her scatting career is finally taking off.”
February 2022: Sarah Jessica Parker says she would not be happy for Kim Cattrall to return the to world of Sex and the City as “there’s just too much public history of feelings on her part that she’s shared”. The actor also told Variety that Cattrall was never asked to return in And Just Like That... as “we have to hear her and listen to her and what was important to her”.
5 May 2022: Kim Cattrall confirms she was never asked to be in And Just Like That..., and tells Variety she never watched the show. However, she said, referring to the fan community’s desire to have her in the reboot: “The greatest compliment I could have as an actor is to be missed.” She said it was “definite no” about ever returning as Samantha.
June 2022: Sarah Jessica Parker denies being “cruel” to Kim Cattrall on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. the actors said “there just isn’t anyone else who’s ever talked about me this way, so it’s very painful”, adding: “It’s very hard to talk about the situation with Kim because I’ve been so careful about not ever wanting to say anything that is unpleasant”. Parker also denied they were embroiled in a feud, instead describing the situation as “one person talking”. Elsewhere, she claimed that a third Sex and the City film didn’t get made as the studio “didnt feel comfortable” about Cattrall’s demands.
Kim Cattrall said she was never asked to be in ‘And Just Like That...’— (Getty Images)
September 2022: Kim Cattrall said has “no regrets” about publicly condemning Sarah Jessica Parker, telling The Los Angeles Times to “Google” the subject if they wanted to know more about it.
Sarah Jessica Parker described the feud as ‘one person talking’ in 2022— (Getty Images)
November 2022: Kim Cattrall hinted that she was only “tolerated” by her co-stars on the set of Sex and the City. While accepting the Screen Icon award at the Glamour Women of the Year ceremony, she said: “This is what happens when you go where you’re celebrated and not where you’re tolerated.”
May 2023: It’s reported that Kim Cattrall filmed a brief role in And Just Like That... season two – but without interacting with any of her co-stars or the showrunner, Michael Patrick Kelly.
June 2023: Cattrall confirms the report while appearing on The View to promote the Netflix series Glamorous, saying: “It’s very interesting to get a call from the head of HBO saying, ‘What can we do?’” In a later interview, she said that returning “felt like dipping my toe back in time and having a wonderful afternoon”. However, she added that was “as far as I’m gonna go”.
July 2023: Parker describes Cattrall’s return leaking before the episode aired as a “big bummer” and that she “couldn’t have been more upset” that it won’t be a surprise.
August 2023: Cattrall prepares to return in AJLT season finale, as it’s announced show has been picked up for third season.
And Just Like That season two concludes on Thursday 24 August on Max in the US and Sky Comedy and Now in the UK.
