“Sex and the City” has had a massive resurgence since all six seasons are now available on Netflix. Even if you haven’t seen the show, Carrie Bradshaw is an iconic character that has cemented herself into pop culture history.
But did you know Carrie Bradshaw is a real person?
“Sex and the City” was based off of the real column written by Candace Bushnell, a freelance journalist writing in New York.
Bushnell was a struggling writer working for various publications in the 1990s. She would eventually land a steady job with “The New York Observer,” now known as the “Observer,” in 1993.
In 1994, she began writing her column “Sex and the City,” based on her and her friends’ experiences with dating in New York.
While the column was typically written in first person, she would sometimes delve into her own experiences with love and sex. In order to not expose her friends, she came up with pseudonyms for everyone she talked about.
When talking about herself, she created the alter ego of Carrie so her parents would not know they were reading about their daughter’s sex life.
The column was a success, primarily because of how raw and honest was Bushnell was. She made talking about sex and relationships more mainstream, with Bushnell referring to herself a “social anthropologist.”
By 1997, Bushnell’s columns were compiled and published in an anthology, also called “Sex and the City.” The original columns are still available on the Observer’s website.
Bushnell would work with television producer Darren Star to adapt her book for television. She previously met Star while profiling him for Vogue, where they became friends. Star was already a big name in television, creating “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place” in the early 90s.
As Star wrote the pilot, he envisioned Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw. However, Parker said she wasn’t initially interested in the project.
“I was flattered but I didn’t want to do it,” Parker said. “He convinced me, begged me to do it, and I signed a contract.”
Even after shooting the pilot, Parker was still not sold on the project.
“I hated the look, the clothes […] I didn’t think it worked,” she said.
Star worked with Parker to redevelop Carrie Bradshaw, such as reimagining the character’s wardrobe.
“After the first episode of season one, I never looked back,” Parker said. “And the rest is history.”
The show would go on to have massive success, winning seven of its 54 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and eight of its 24 Golden Globe Award nominations. The show would run for six seasons, followed by two movies and a prequel series.
While the show would propel Parker into national stardom and later became a producer on the show, Bushnell only made $100,000 from selling the rights to her book. She would go on to write nine more books, including “Lipstick Jungle,” “The Carrie Diaries” and “Summer in the City.”
Her latest novel, “Is There Still Sex in the City?,” hilights life after her divorce from Charles Askegard, a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet.
She now tours her onstage memoir “True Tales of Sex, Success and ‘Sex and the City’.”
Bushnell appeared on on TIME’s “Person of the Week” podcast, where she talked about her career and the show. However, despite the massive success of the “Sex and the City” show, she doesn’t want that to be her legacy.
“My life did not change because of that TV show,” Bushnell said. “My life changed, I mean, because I worked my ass off and wrote some bestselling novels. That was really what changed my life and allowed me to feel like I’m successful.”