Sex And The City: How Old Samantha Was At The Beginning & End

How old is Samantha “Sam” Jones (Kim Cattrall) at the beginning of Sex and the City, and how much does she age throughout the series and subsequent films? Sex and the City premiered on HBO in June 1998 and ran for six seasons. The series revolved around four best friends and soul mates Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Samantha Jones. Following the series finale in 2004, the franchise expanded to include two feature-length films, Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010), and The CW’s short-lived prequel show The Carrie Diaries. The original series remains incredibly popular, and in January 2021, HBO Max announced a Sex and the City revival (without Samantha) was in the works and production is currently underway.

Sex and the City was groundbreaking in its portrayal of successful, independent female characters who weren’t afraid or embarrassed to talk about sex. Samantha was pragmatic, at times vulgar and inappropriate but unflinchingly honest. Samantha existed before the term “sex-positive” was part of the everyday vernacular. Without her abundance of episodic male suitors and explicit lovemaking scenes, there would have been far less “sex” in Sex and the City. More importantly, Samantha refused to conform to traditional gender roles and was content to forego marriage and motherhood. Samantha also was at the center of the series’ darkest story arc when her character was diagnosed with breast cancer, leading some fans to question if the Sex and the City revival will kill Samantha off.

Early in the series, the age gap between the women is the group’s worst-kept secret. During season 2, episode 3, “The Freak Show,” Samantha is deeply offended when a man she’s dating guesses her age to be 40 or 41. As the narrator, Carrie reveals the women have been celebrating Samantha’s 35th birthday for as long as they can remember. Samantha finally acknowledges the age difference in season 3, episode 8, “The Big Time,” when she believes she’s entering menopause and confesses to her friends, “Ladies… What I’m about to tell you… may come as a shock. I’m a little… older than you.” During season 4, episode 1, “The Agony and ‘Ex’-tacy,” Carrie laments turning 35, and Samantha responds, “Oh, shut the f**k up, I’m 140.” As the years and seasons passed, the women dissected the ups and downs of growing older, with the other main characters closing the gap between 35 and 40. However, Samantha’s exact age remains a mystery until season 6A episode 12, “One,” which aired in September 2003. While discussing Carrie’s love interest Aleksandr Petrovsky, Samantha recalls him being the “it” guy during Studio 54’s heyday when she was 22. The walk down memory lane prompts Samantha to reveal to Miranda and Carrie that she’s 45, making her 40 when the series premiered. The women of Sex and the City returned for two much-maligned movies: Sex and the City, which ends with the friends celebrating Samantha’s milestone 50th birthday, and Sex and the City 2, which features Samantha in the throes of menopause at the age of 52.

It’s impossible to imagine anyone but Kim Cattrall portraying Samantha, but in a Kindle Singles Interview (via Deadline),  the show’s creator Darren Star revealed actress Lou Thornton was initially cast in the role. “The problem was that she was in her 30s, I think. And it was changing who Samantha was. Samantha was 10 years older than the other girls, a totally different experience,” Star said. Well, not quite 10. When Sex and the City premiered, Davis and Parker were 33, Nixon was 32, and Cattrall was 41.

While some fans are excited about the 10-episode-revival titled And Just Like That, most of the buzz surrounding the project involves how the show will handle the absence of Cattrall’s horny now-sexagenarian Samantha. Cattrall publically washed her hands of the franchise due to a high-profile feud with Parker. It’s difficult to imagine how the Sex and the City revival will work in the wake of two disappointing films and the loss of a beloved character who promised to be as entertaining in her sixties as she was in her forties and fifties.

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