Spat in the city: A timeline of the 23-year feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall

As ‘Sex and the City’ gets rebooted, Kim Cattrall’s character Samantha Jones will not be returning. Here’s why…

June 1998. 'Sex and the City' debuts on US TV. It’s worth noting that of the four main stars, Parker and Cattrall were both in movies, with SJP having starred in 'Footloose', 'Mars Attacks!', 'LA Story', 'Hocus Pocus' and more. While Cattrall boasted the likes 'Police Academy', 'Big Trouble in Little China', 'Mannequin' and 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' on her resumé. Insiders will later point to SJP’s salary in relation to Cattrall’s as a starting point of the feud. Getty Images

August 2002. While in Atlantic City, New Jersey, filming the season five episode 'Luck Be An Old Lady', the Irish Mirror revealed: “There were reports SJP, Cynthia and Kristin all stayed at a house together, while Kim was forced to find her own accommodation.” During seasons five and six, SJP’s salary was rumoured to have increased to $1 million per episode, while Kristen Davis, Cynthia Nixon’s and Kim Cattrall’s was $350,000. AFP

September 2004. At the Emmys, Parker, Nixon, and Davis all sat together at a table celebrating two wins for the show – Sarah Jessica Parker for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Cynthia Nixon for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – while Cattrall sat by herself. In 2008, British newspaper The Telegraph reported Cattrall as saying: “Are we the best of friends? No. We're professional actresses. We have our own separate lives.” Getty Images

September 2017. A report in the Daily Mail revealed: “Warner Bros had given [Sex and the City 3] the green light after months of speculation and the movie was supposed to start filming in the coming days. However, the studio can no longer move ahead as Cattrall, 61, demanded they produce other movies she had in development or she wouldn't sign up for the project. Warner Bros refused to meet her demands and had to cancel production as the company decided it wouldn't be fair to fans to produce a movie with only three of the four main characters.” Cattrall tweeted on September 29: “The only ‘demand’ I ever made was that I didn’t want to do a 3rd film… & that was back in 2016.” Getty Images

October 2017. Kim appears on 'Piers Morgan’s Life Stories' and says of her co-stars: “We’ve never been friends. We’ve been colleagues.” She said of Parker: “I think she could have been nicer. I don’t know what her issue is ... It feels like a toxic relationship.” Getty Images

October 2017. Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch in the show, showed which side he was on in the feud when he tweeted: “Dear fans, because I’m ‘toxic’, I’m going to negotiate a contract for 6 months, not come to terms, then say I never wanted to do it anyway.” Getty Images

February 2018. When Parker offers her condolences to Cattrall during an interview with Extra TV, after her brother passed away at the age of 55, Cattrall took to Instagram, calling the New York-based actress a “hypocrite”. “My Mom asked me today: ‘When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?’ Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona.” Getty Images

February 2018. Jason Lewis, who played Samantha's actor boyfriend Smith Jerrod, stepped into the fray saying in an interview with KTLA: “Listen, I have to say that Sarah was always just so lovely and such a consummate professional and I think that people should remember their graciousness and the things that have been given to them. And I'm going to stop there. Because I've got nothing good to say.” And when asked if he was Team Sarah over Team Kim, he replied: “I might just have to say yeah. What a gracious lady. She was always so good to me.” Courtesy HBO

August 2019. In an interview with The Guardian, Cattrall insisted that everyone should move on, saying: “I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just replace me with another actress instead of wasting time bullying. No means no.” Courtesy HBO

January 2021. After months of speculation about the reboot, Parker took to Instagram to share a video which read: “And Just Like That …” She added: "I couldn’t help but wonder... where are they now? X.” Responding to a fan in the comments who wrote: “Happy to see you back but will miss Kim/Samantha”, Parker replied, “We will too. We loved her so. X.” She also wrote to another fan: “No. I don’t dislike her. I’ve never said that. Never would. Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.” Courtesy HBO

When it comes to Hollywood feuds, they endure like no others because of the fame and money, not to mention egos, involved. What's more, they almost always go public despite the participants' claims about privacy, because how else will a star get their fans to choose a side if they don't know what's going on?

One such feud which has so far lasted 23 years and counting, is the one between onscreen BFFs, Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones, aka Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall.

Scroll through the gallery above for a timeline of the pair's tumultuous relationship...

Although rumours of discord between the pair have been around since the show debuted back in 2008, news of the feud really blew up when in February 2018 when Parker offered her condolences to Cattrall after her brother passed away, leading Cattrall to take to Instagram to post "I don't need your love or support at this tragic time @sarahjessicaparker."

Following years of speculation, which saw Liverpool-born Cattrall blamed for the third SATC movie getting canned, on January 11, Parker took to Instagram to reveal that the hugely anticipated movie will go ahead without Samantha Jones.

Here’s all we know about one of TV's longest-running feuds...

June 1998

Sex and the City debuts on HBO. It's worth noting that of the four main stars, Parker and Cattrall were both in movies, with SJP having starred in Footloose, Mars Attacks!, LA Story, Hocus Pocus and more. While Cattrall boasted the likes Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin and The Bonfire of the Vanities on her resume. Insiders will later point to SJP's salary in relation to Cattrall's as a starting point of the feud.

August 2002

While in Atlantic City, New Jersey, filming the season five episode Luck Be An Old Lady, the Irish Mirror revealed: "There were reports SJP, Cynthia [Nixon] and Kristin [Davis] all stayed at a house together, while Kim was forced to find her own accommodation." During seasons five and six, SJP's salary was rumoured to have increased to $1 million per episode, while Davis, Nixon and Cattrall's was $350,000.

September 2004

At the Emmys, Parker, Nixon, and Davis all sat together at a table celebrating two wins for the show – Parker for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Nixon for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – while Cattrall sat by herself. In 2008, British newspaper The Telegraph reported Cattrall as saying: "Are we the best of friends? No. We're professional actresses. We have our own separate lives."

September 2017

A report in the Daily Mail revealed: "Warner Bros had given [Sex and the City 3] the green light after months of speculation and the movie was supposed to start filming in the coming days. However, the studio can no longer move ahead as Cattrall, 61, demanded they produce other movies she had in development or she wouldn't sign up for the project. Warner Bros refused to meet her demands and had to cancel production as the company decided it wouldn't be fair to fans to produce a movie with only three of the four main characters."

Cattrall tweeted on September 29: “The only ‘demand’ I ever made was that I didn’t want to do a 3rd film… & that was back in 2016.”

October 2017

Cattrall appears on Piers Morgan's Life Stories and says of her co-stars: "We've never been friends. We've been colleagues." She said of Parker: "I think she could have been nicer. I don't know what her issue is ... It feels like a toxic relationship."

October 2017

Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch in the show, showed which side he was on in the feud when he tweeted: “Dear fans, because I’m ‘toxic’, I’m going to negotiate a contract for 6 months, not come to terms, then say I never wanted to do it anyway.”

February 2018

When Parker offered her condolences to Cattrall during an interview with Extra TV, after Cattrall's brother passed away at the age of 55, she took to Instagram to call Parker a “hypocrite”.

"My Mom asked me today: 'When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?' You're continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."

February 2018

Jason Lewis, who played Samantha's actor boyfriend Smith Jerrod, stepped into the fray saying in an interview with KTLA: “Listen, I have to say that Sarah was always just so lovely and such a consummate professional and I think that people should remember their graciousness and the things that have been given to them. And I'm going to stop there. Because I've got nothing good to say.” And when asked if he was Team Sarah over Team Kim, he replied: “I might just have to say yeah. What a gracious lady. She was always so good to me.”

August 2019

In an interview with The Guardian, Cattrall insisted that everyone should move on, saying: "I couldn't understand why they wouldn't just replace me with another actress instead of wasting time bullying. No means no."

January 2021

After months of speculation about the reboot, Parker took to Instagram to share a video which read: “And Just Like That …” She added: "I couldn’t help but wonder... where are they now? X.” Responding to a fan in the comments who wrote: “Happy to see you back but will miss Kim/Samantha”, Parker replied, “We will too. We loved her so. X.”

She also wrote to another fan: “No. I don’t dislike her. I’ve never said that. Never would. Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.”