How did "Sex and the City" change Kim Cattrall's idea of motherhood?
Just how tense was her relationship with her co-stars?
Keep watching as we look at tragic details about the actress's life and career.
For decades, British-born Canadian actress Kim 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.
In 2011, Cattrall appeared on "Who Do You Think You Are?," a reality show that helps
celebrities trace their roots, to return to her birthplace of Liverpool and discover the
answer to the mystery.
Her grandfather, George Baugh, had deserted his wife, Marion, and their three daughters
— including Kim's mother — after 10 years of marriage.
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.
"This is beyond.
I knew he was gutsy but this is just…
now he's a criminal."
George had four children with his new wife, and eventually, they moved to Australia.
Cattrall appeared on the show in an effort to find out the truth for her mother and her
aunts, and after learning what happened to her grandfather, commented that she felt the
mystery had come, quote, "full circle."
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 and adventurous of them all.
Tragically, the premise of close friendship was far from the truth.
According to the New York Post, there was tension among the cast from the beginning.
Co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon, who played Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda
Hobbes, knew each other from working on Broadway before the show began.
Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte York, quickly joined this circle.
Cattrall had one close friend on the series, creator Darren Star, but Star was ultimately
replaced as showrunner by Parker's friend, Michael Patrick King.
This meant that Cattrall had no allies on set, but that didn't hinder her stardom.
Samantha became a fan-favorite character on the show for her confidence and frequent antics,
and Cattrall earned five consecutives Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actress in
a Comedy Series.
The series was so popular that, even after it ended, the four stars reunited for two
feature films, but the reunions didn't last.
In 2017, long after she said she wouldn't do more "Sex and the City" projects, Cattrall
spoke with Piers Morgan on "Life Stories" and said of her co-stars,
"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 friendship.
In 2021, Parker, Nixon, and Davis reunited for a sequel series titled "And Just Like
That…," where they explained Cattrall's absence by writing Samantha moving to London
into the series.
While Kim Cattrall was playing the vivacious and fearless Samantha Jones on "Sex and the
City," the actor herself was married to her third husband, jazz bassist Mark Levinson.
Levinson and Cattrall tied the knot in 1998, the same year that "Sex and the City" premiered.
Unfortunately, the marriage lasted only as long as the show did.
Cattrall and Levinson divorced in 2004, the same year the original "Sex and the City"
run ended on HBO.
Years later, in an interview with news.com.au, Cattrall blamed her commitment to the hit
series for the loss of her marriage.
Because she was, as she put it, "never home," and her husband was, "competitive," their
marriage suffered while "Sex and the City" prospered.
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 when she was married to Mark Levinson,
she considered in vitro fertilization treatments to get pregnant, because by then she was in
her early 40s.
But the hit HBO series was such a demand on her time, that she worried she couldn't ever
make the balance work.
But it wasn't just the show that would have been demanding.
The more Cattrall looked into IVF procedures, the more she realized how much of a, quote,
"commitment" the treatments were.
Eventually, she decided against moving forward with the procedure, but Cattrall said that
she still does feel maternal at times.
Though she doesn't have children, she's able to nurture that instinct by being a friend,
an aunt, and a mentor to other young actors.
Kim Cattrall's brother, Chris Cattrall, went missing from his home in Canada in February
2018, according to CNN.
Kim initially used her reach on social media to ask for help and to encourage locals to
keep an eye out for Chris.
Sadly, just hours later, Cattrall took to social media again to let her concerned followers
know that her brother had died.
While she kept tight-lipped about Chris's death for a while, Cattrall opened up to the
Daily Mail in July 2019 and confirmed that his death was a suicide.
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.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.
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 former "Sex and the City"
co-star Sarah Jessica Parker.
Fresh tension arose when Parker commented on Cattrall's Instagram to express condolences
after the death of Chris Cattrall.
However, shortly after using Instagram to thank her "Sex and the City" colleagues and
her fans for their support, Cattrall used Instagram to share a message that read:
"I don't need your love or support at this tragic time, @sarahjessicaparker."
In the caption, Cattrall explained her message by calling Parker's attempts to reach out
to her a "painful reminder" of her former co-star's treatment of her.
Cattrall accused Parker of being "cruel" both in the past and in the present, and asked
her former co-star to stop commenting on her life.
For her part, Parker did not directly respond to Cattrall, but she has gone on the record
several times to reflect on being "heartbroken" about the rift.
But thanks to projects like "And Just Like That…" she's since been able to move on.
With her own projects like the TV series "Filthy Rich" and "How I Met Your Father," it seems
Cattrall's managed to move on too.
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