‘Sex and the City’: Everything We Know About the Girls’ Families

Sex and the City writers purposefully avoided mentioning much about the upbringings of the show’s four main characters. After six seasons, fans of the series knew surprisingly little about how Carrie Bradshaw and her pals grew up. That was by design, though. The series was supposed to be all about the family that the ladies made when they moved to New York. Still, some details did slip out during the series. So, here is everything we know about the backgrounds of all four ladies.

Sex and the City writers shared the most about Miranda and Charlotte’s upbringings

Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbes had the most robust backstories. Fans learned early on that Charlotte was a Smith College graduate who grew up in Connecticut. They also met her brother, Wesley, when he visited once. Later, in her marriage announcement, fans learned that Charlotte’s father was a doctor and that her mother’s nickname was Muffin. It is made clear that she grew up wealthy.

On the other hand, Miranda seemed to grow up firmly in the middle class before making her own money. Miranda had siblings, grew up in Philadelphia, and settled in New York after graduating from Harvard. She mentioned, on more than one occasion, that she had a difficult relationship with her mother. Her siblings, including sisters Betsy and Catherine, were married with children. 

Sex and the City fans also learned a decent amount about Samantha

While most fans don’t think much of Samantha Jones’ background, she is the character who seemed to let the most slip out about her childhood. In season 3, Samantha noted that by the time her mother was her age she had “three kids and a drunk husband.” Later, in season 4, Samantha revealed that she worked at Dairy Queen as a teenager.

While Samantha wasn’t big on sharing details, it’s easy to ascertain that she grew up in the suburbs in a middle-class family. She never spoke directly of siblings, and they never appeared in the show, but clearly, she had at least two based on what she said. She never mentioned what state she grew up in, though.

Carrie Bradshaw’s backstory was the biggest mystery

The main character and narrator of the series, Carrie, actually shared the least about her life before moving to New York. Surely that was by design, but fans still learned a bit about how Carrie grew up. In season 1, she mentioned that her family was not religious at all. In a later season, she revealed that her father walked out on her and her mother when she was young. That tidbit of information was particularly interesting to fans. After all, it explained why Carrie tended to chase unavailable men like Mr. Big.

The Carrie Diaries, the show that followed Carrie as a teenager, was supposed to explain the iconic character’s backstory. Still, it was completely different from the tidbits that Carrie shared in Sex and the City. Vulture points out that The Carrie Diaries centered around the death of Carrie’s mother. Her father was completely present, and she had a sibling. The Sex and the City version of Carrie never mentioned any siblings, and it’s largely assumed that she was an only child.