Sarah Jessica Parker Has Truly the Wildest Theory About Her Character Carrie Bradshaw’s Friends Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte from ‘Sex and the City’

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 5 April 2024

Sex and the City first aired a full 26 years ago, and after you read Sarah Jessica Parker’s comments about the classic show—which just had its big Netflix debut on April 1—you may never think about it the same way again.

Parker is the star of the show, playing columnist Carrie Bradshaw alongside her three close friends Samantha Jones (played by Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis). The four women “navigate careers, friendship, and romance against the backdrop of New York City,” Bustle writes. Relatively simple enough, right? Well, Parker couldn’t help but wonder…(see what we did there?) if the characters of Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte even existed at all, or the three were just figments of Carrie’s imagination the whole time.

“Think about it,” Parker said in a 2019 interview. “She’s telling a story every week. This is her point of view, it’s almost always her point of view.” True—Sex and the City episodes are nearly always narrated by Carrie.

Fashion model, Fashion, Beauty, Pink, Hairstyle, Street fashion, Shoulder, Blond, Fashion design, Event, — Was any of it real? Any of it?

Parker pointed in particular to the series finale, “An American Girl in Paris,” where Carrie moves to the city for love, leaving New York City, her friends, and her trusted computer behind. “When Carrie went to Paris and left her computer, for the first time Carrie wasn’t telling the story,” Parker said. “She left her computer, which was the conduit [through] which the audiences know about Charlotte, Miranda, and Samanda. Sometimes I’m like, ‘hmmm,’ just to mess with myself.”

Sarah Jessica Parker walking down the street — All six seasons of the show are available to stream on Netflix as of April 1.

Per Bustle, this theory actually “popped up on Reddit about a decade ago, where many fans agreed that the women might only exist in Carrie’s mind,” the outlet writes. Now that all six of the show’s seasons are on Netflix, this theory might require a rewatch from a completely different interpretation…

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

Stay In The Know