When Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones last year popped up for a cameo appearance in spin-off series And Just Like That..., fans were left questioning whether the long-discussed feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall was over. Sure, the pair filmed their scenes separately after Kim reportedly refused to share a room with any of her former co-stars or showrunner Michael Patrick King. But with this glimmer of hope, loyal SATC viewers still hoped that maybe, just maybe, Samantha Jones would be sticking around.
So when unsubstantiated rumours began circling online claiming that Kim was showing up for season three, which is currently filming in New York, fans let their hopes get ahead of them. They asked one crucial question: would Kim Cattrall be in And Just Like That… season three?
This week, however, Kim poured water on that idea. When a US magazing reported that Kim was returning, but, like with her season 2 cameo, would be filming all her scenes separately in London, she set the record straight. Responding to a fan who shared the article claiming Samantha Jones would be back ‘after all’, the actor wrote on X (formerly Twitter), ‘Aw that’s so kind but I’m not [kiss emoji].’
Suitably Kim, who’s never been afraid to throw a bit of subtle (or let’s be honest, not so subtle) shade towards Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City’s other two leads, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis. Reports of a divide, with SJP, Cynthia and Kristin in one camp and Kim in another, were rife when the show first aired. When Kim sat separately to her co-stars at the 2004 Emmy Awards, they were only furthered. Her response? ‘Are we the best of friends? No. We're professional actresses. We have our own separate lives.’
Kim is said to have been the reason that there wasn’t a third Sex and the City film (which, given the critical bashing the second film got, might not have been such a bad thing). She then reiterated her claims that the quartet were never real friends in a 2017 interview on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, where she said, ‘We've never been friends - we've been colleagues.’ She also added that Sarah ‘could have been nicer’ to her.
Things then reached a head in 2018, following the sad passing of Kim’s brother. SJP shared her condolences in an Instagram comment, and Kim responded in a standalone post, making it clear this feud was very real and anything but over. ‘Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,’ she wrote. ‘Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already). You are not my family. You are not my friend.’
So while the news that HBO would be returning to the Sex and the City universe for And Just Like That… in 2021, nobody was too surprised to learn that Kim wasn’t involved. The leaked news that Kim would be coming back, after all, for a short cameo in season 2? Now that was a shock.
Unsurprisingly, however, Kim’s return didn’t mean things were all kisses and rainbows between SJP and her. She did not get back together with her former castmates for the scene, which saw Carrie and Samantha speaking on the phone, and instead filmed the scene in a separate garage.
In an interview at the time, she described her brief return as 'dipping my toe back in time and having a wonderful afternoon', but stressed that this was 'as far as I’m gonna go'. But despite it all, Sarah has remained steadfast in not badmouthing her former co-star. In a 2023 interview with The New Yorker, she reiterated, 'It’s the weirdest thing, to be told we’re in a catfight. I would never speak poorly about Kim. I just wouldn’t.'
Isobel Lewis is a news and entertainment writer at Grazia, where she covers TV, entertainment and celebrity. She previously worked as a culture reporter for The Independent, and has written for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and The i.