{"id":147172,"date":"2025-08-15T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147172\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T07:00:11","slug":"why-carrie-bradshaw-ends-single-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147172\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Carrie Bradshaw Ends Single (Interview)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains major spoilers from the series finale of And Just Like That<\/a>, \u201cParty of One.\u201d]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGoing into the series finale<\/a> of And Just Like That, we couldn\u2019t help but wonder how Carrie Bradshaw\u2019s story would end. Would Manhattan\u2019s most fabulous single girl be on her own after breaking up with Aidan Shaw (John Corbett<\/a>)? Or would she lean into the intoxicating possibility of a new romance with her neighbor and perhaps find love elsewhere?<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Patrick King<\/a> wasn\u2019t going to repeat history. This time, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker<\/a>) makes a decision that should satisfy fans of both the original series, its revival AJLT and everything in between: She chooses herself.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe last line: The Woman realized she wasn\u2019t alone. She was on her own. That\u2019s it,\u201d the Sex and the City<\/a> writer-director and showrunner of And Just Like That tells The Hollywood Reporter about the ending he came upon for his character muse of 27 years. \u201cThat is what I wanted to say as an echo and a callback and a response to the finale of Sex and the City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, King brings THR inside the surprising decision to end HBO Max\u2019s cherished franchise after the third season of its comeback series \u2014 and why he\u2019s not second-guessing his decision, even when everyone is still talking about Carrie, her friends (a.k.a. her soulmates) and And Just Like That.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month when you announced<\/a> that And Just Like That was ending with the season three finale, you said in your statement that you knew it was the end for Carrie when you wrote it. Was it truly that organic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes.<\/p>\n

\n\tTell me about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLook, you start every season thinking: \u201cWe\u2019re just going to do it out full. We\u2019re going to let the stories come. We\u2019re not going to hold back.\u201d But when I was writing the last line: \u201cThe Woman realized she wasn\u2019t alone. She was on her own.\u201d [Co-writer] Susan Fales-Hill and I wrote it and were like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d That is what I wanted to say as an echo and a callback and a response to the finale of Sex and the City<\/a>, when Carrie was walking down the street and said, \u201cThe most significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the love you love, well that\u2019s fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s great. But Mr. Big [Chris Noth<\/a>], who had just turned into John, was calling her on the phone, saying he was coming. And so this whole journey [with AJLT] was about: \u201cWhat if no one\u2019s coming? How can you really feel that?\u201d We wanted to show it\u2019s a possibility that Carrie could get to that place, and the entire season was about getting her to that feeling. In particular, this last episode was about creating so much chaos and so much love and so much family around her that you would feel that she was not alone. But when she walks into that beautiful house \u2014 quiet \u2014 and eats pumpkin pie with a spoon, you realize, \u201cOh, that\u2019s pretty good life, too. That\u2019s a pretty good life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you write this ending. Who do you call next? How big was the circle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, no. The writing is sacred. Susan Fales-Hill and I wrote the episode. We discussed. Then we discussed with the other writers in the writing room. We\u2019ve all been thinking about this. And then you wait and see if it\u2019s real. You write it and you feel it and you say, \u201cIs it real?\u201d And you wait. Is something else going to come? Is there going to be another door that opens? <\/p>\n

\n\tFor me as a writer, if it doesn\u2019t show up, then I realize, \u201cWe\u2019re done.\u201d I\u2019ve done this before. So then I did what I did to Sarah Jessica on Sex and the City. I went to her this time, and I said, \u201cI think this is Carrie, and I think we\u2019re here.\u201d And she said, \u201cI think there are no more stories to tell for Carrie. Then we stop.\u201d Because neither of us just have to do a show unless there\u2019s something to say.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen you talk to HBO, just like we did on Sex and the City. It\u2019s a different HBO team, but the same dynamic, and they always want to do what\u2019s best for the experience of the story for the audience. So you make sure every other character has a place where they\u2019re landing where the audience can fan fiction whatever endings they want for them: For Miranda [Cynthia Nixon<\/a>], [her girlfriend] Joy [Dolly Wells] comes back. They\u2019ve just cleaned up shit. If you can clean up shit, that means pretty much you can clean up anything.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeema [Sarita Choudhury] says, \u201cI don\u2019t miss the gluten.\u201d That\u2019s like saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to miss this thing everybody thinks I need to have to enjoy life: Gluten or marriage.\u201d Charlotte [Kristin Davis<\/a>] and Harry [Evan Handler] have sex! That\u2019s the only thing that was less than perfect about their very special family.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven [their child] Rock. The last line Rock [Alexa Swinton] says is, \u201cI\u2019m going to be a lot of different people in my life.\u201d And that\u2019s kind of significant, because what we tried to do with And Just Like That is bring in a lot of different people and show their lives and let them change and evolve, and make mistakes and happen. So we go to HBO and we say, \u201cThis is where we are.\u201d And they go, \u201cYeah.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tI mean, the numbers are huge. It\u2019s very successful. People can\u2019t stop talking about it<\/a>. But just like Sex and the City, it was like, \u201cOkay.\u201d People don\u2019t make decisions like that [often now]. But luckily, we\u2019re at a place where they kind of let artists make decisions still.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMichael Patrick King, who co-wrote and directed the series finale, \u201cParty of One,\u201d on set with Sarah Jessica Parker for And Just Like That.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCraig Blankenhorn<\/p>\n

\n\tSo did everybody on the cast kind of know going into filming the season that this was it, or did they find out when filming the two-part finale [episodes 11 and 12]?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, no. You always leave the window open. The finale, which turned out to be episode 12, wasn\u2019t written at the beginning of the season. You let it all be organic, and as it starts to become, \u201cWell, we can\u2019t do more than we did with Carrie and Aidan<\/a>. I mean, that\u2019s it. Right?\u201d We did everything. Then it becomes a realization, as the show starts to crest to what it is, you start talking, \u201cI think this is it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWe didn\u2019t tell people that it was the final season when we were filming. And we made a decision during the press junket to not to say \u201cfinal,\u201d because if you say the word \u201cfinal\u201d at the beginning of a season \u2014 and a lot of shows do it because they want that to be the thought \u2014 but if we had put the word \u201cfinal season\u201d out, people wouldn\u2019t have struggled with Carrie and Aidan the way they did<\/a>. They would have just assumed, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s a final.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tI really wanted people to be filled with angst and confusion and worry, how are they going to fix this? If you knew this was a final season, you wouldn\u2019t think about fixing it. You would just say, \u201cWell, that\u2019s over.\u201d So we made a decision with HBO and with everyone to not say final because no one had seen it. You\u2019re going to talk about how it ends before it even begins? I really did think the show was so much fun. This season was so active \u2014 as you see, it was very active. The word \u201cfinal\u201d is like a funeral dirge on something that we wanted to be a party.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen we decided after the 10th episode, when [writer-neighbor] Duncan [Jonathan Cake] and Carrie had that beautiful night [where they slept together], \u201cLet\u2019s announce it, so that people can really feel what they\u2019re going to feel about the last two episodes and not pull the rug out from under them.\u201d There\u2019s enough finish in this that you can understand it was the final one.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the original Sex and the City series, you filmed alternate endings for the series finale. Did you do that here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo. It was clear as a bell. The reason we filmed alternate endings for the original was because people were rabid about how it would end. Everybody knew it was the end. How are they going to end it? There were people going through garbage cans looking for sides from the script. So we had to film many things because we wanted it to be a surprise. And I think, quite frankly, people are still going to be surprised. Because when we announced that it was ending in two episodes, a lot of people thought, \u201cHow\u2019s she going to get with a guy in two episodes?\u201d People still want that happy ending for Carrie.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you attribute to being able to deliver this ending now of Carrie being single? That times have changed? That you have been ruminating on the SATC ending for decades? Or is this just where your writing took you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s always about what we\u2019ve done; how not to repeat what we\u2019ve done. I knew everything we\u2019ve done for 27 years. It limits what you can keep doing, if your goal is not to repeat. I\u2019m always like, \u201cHow further can we go?\u201d Look at the maze we had to create for Aidan because he\u2019d been in the show already a couple of times. For me, you let the story take you where it\u2019s going to take you and you\u2019re surprised.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I was writing the finale of Sex and the City, I was writing and all of a sudden, the thought came into my mind, \u201cMr. Big, just call him John. Just go there. Stop pretending that he\u2019s not real. Make him real.\u201d It\u2019s an impulse. And this is a writing room driving to this place following an impulse. But the other thing is that characters grow. Who Carrie was at the end of Sex and the City and who she is at the end of And Just Like That is someone who has had great growth, great life experience. Now she\u2019s ready to say the very shocking sentence, \u201cMaybe just me,\u201d which she says to Charlotte in that beautiful scene where Sarah Jessica was just so emotional about saying that. So it\u2019s really about the character, where they\u2019ve been and where you want to leave them. This is where we wanted to leave her.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople talked about the original ending \u2014 should she have ended fabulous and single? Now you are giving viewers that ending. As you said, there\u2019s been a lot of chatter this season. As you were following along with the viral discourse and how actively people were engaging with the show, was any part of you like, \u201cEek, maybe we shouldn\u2019t be ending right now.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s huge. It\u2019s a noise. It\u2019s loud, it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s a press pi\u00f1ata. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Like it\u2019s at a party: \u201cLet\u2019s just hit that little pink unicorn!\u201d But no \u2014 never had a second thought, because I believe that sometimes you take the candy away. You know?<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is right. And I believe \u2014 in my perhaps delusion \u2014 that it will resonate correctly. Once everybody gets over the, \u201cI want it to end a different way.\u201d Once everyone stops writing their show. Also, there\u2019s a whole other un-chatty world of the people who have watched and loved these characters for 27 years. And that\u2019s really who we\u2019re writing to. To make sure that Carrie\u2019s taken care of and that they\u2019re taking care of. That if you have someone, you\u2019re reflected. And that if you don\u2019t have someone \u2014 which is so important \u2014\u00a0if you just have yourself, that\u2019s the most important reflection Sex and the City and And Just Like That could do, because that\u2019s the DNA of the brand: The individual versus what society says you should be. The goal for us was to create a moment where Carrie feels the love for herself from herself, and what she\u2019s created in that world, that she\u2019s created in that magnificent house.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe whole reason she goes back to her old apartment in the episode before this finale was because everyone is assuming she\u2019s going to move back there. They want her back there. So we created that entire world again just to put a wall so that you could say, \u201cNo, she can\u2019t move back there. It\u2019s not the same.\u201d So now, maybe everybody invest in Gramercy! (Laughs) We furnished it beautifully for you!<\/p>\n

\n\tWe had Carrie realize the Carrie Bradshaw of Gramercy. She traded out things that were Aidan. She brought in things that were her. We tried to give her a soft cushion so that after she comes home from that Thanksgiving \u2014 which is noise and chaos and other people\u2019s families and cold mashed potatoes and shit in the toilet and men that could be your boyfriend if you were desperate, or not. There\u2019s all those possibilities. But then she walks into this sun-lit, quiet, cushioned world that she\u2019s created for herself. She leaves her shoes on and eats pumpkin pie with a spoon. She doesn\u2019t even cut it like a person would if you were living with someone.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMichael Patrick King hopes viewers will \u201cfan fiction\u201d the future for Charlotte (Kristin Davis, left) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) after the AJLT finale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHBO Max<\/p>\n

\n\tThe million-dollar question is: Is Carrie\u2019s book shut? Is it the end-end? Will you never, ever, ever explore what Carrie being fabulous and single in her 60s looks like in a movie or another spinoff?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLook, I have definitely closed the book, and whether there\u2019s another book remains to be seen. You\u2019re never, ever not\u2026 I\u2019m always surprised. When we closed Sex and the City, we closed it. And just like that, we\u2019re back!<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I really do want people to understand that this was about telling these stories and bringing them to a place where there was a finish. And by \u201cfinish,\u201d I mean an open-ended finish, where each of the characters\u2019 lives could continue and you could feel good about it for all of them. It\u2019s what you want to write now that we\u2019re done. We\u2019re done writing.<\/p>\n

\n\tVictor Garber is in the finale to show that there could always be a man. Duncan\u2019s in London. Nothing happened to him. But Carrie is not holding on to it. And that is the most anarchy thought we could bring to this series, which is an echo of another series that was filled with anarchy, which is like, \u201cI choose me over what society says I should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSarah Jessica left us with this moving tribute<\/a> to Carrie on her Instagram. When filming the final episode, she knew it was the end, yes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes. Leave a party while it\u2019s still fun, right? You can hear it in her Instagram\u2026 that tone in her voice is such a goodbye. It\u2019s so beautiful.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Just Like That and Sex and the City are now streaming on HBO Max. See our ranking of the top 15 episodes of Sex and the City.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains major spoilers from the series finale of And Just Like That, \u201cParty of One.\u201d] Going…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30334,86872,51257,171,1094,58351,1097,1096,46533,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-147172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-and-just-like-that","9":"tag-chris-noth","10":"tag-cynthia-nixon","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-john-corbett","13":"tag-kristin-davis","14":"tag-michael-patrick-king","15":"tag-sarah-jessica-parker","16":"tag-sex-and-the-city","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115031495406287981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}