Sarah Jessica Parker Reveals Why Kim Cattrall Wasn’t Asked To Join ‘And Just Like That…’

Sarah Jessica Parker has given her side on the growing rift between Kim Cattrall and herself, as well as Cattrall’s absence from And Just Like That, the sequel series to their hit sitcom Sex And The City.

Parker spoke on the Awards Chatter podcast and said Cattrall was never considered for the HBO Max series because she had backed out of a 3rd SATC movie. Parker said Cattrall wasn’t approached “because she made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us.”

Parker was also very diplomatic in her recollection and seemed to take issue with those hoping for more of a fight between the two. “That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning. You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s some place they want to be, or a person they want to play … you get to the age where you’re like, ‘Well, we hear that.'”

A fight wasn’t the specific reason for Cattrall’s departure, but it was in the world of the show. The first AJLT episode explains that Cattrall’s Samantha and Parker’s Carrie had a falling out when Carrie stopped using her as her publicist.

Samantha has a minor presence on the show through text messages on the screen, which Parker said: “was kind of nice for all of us and, I think, the audience.”

Parker also briefly addressed the status of their relationship, which was often the subject of gossip columns spreading rumors that the two actresses were constantly feuding on set. Parker said on the podcast, “I’ve spent a lot of years working really hard to always be decent to everybody on the set, to take care of people.”

She also said that comments Cattrall has made about her are “very painful.” Cattrall told Piers Morgan in the wake of the show’s cancellation that she had to take Parker “to task” and added “I really think she could’ve been nicer. I don’t know what her issue is.”

She added that she has frustration over people framing the conflict as “a fight, a fight, a fight. I’ve never uttered fighting words in my life bout anybody that I’ve worked with ever. There is s not a ‘fight’ going on.” Parker also said, “I just wish that they would stop calling this a ‘catfight’ or an ‘argument’ … There has been one person talking.”