Sex And The City helped define what it meant to be a working, single woman in her 30s for a whole generation.
Now the creator — and real-life version of the protagonist — is in her 60s, and she still has a lot to say.
As you may know, Carrie Bradshaw was the fictional version of Candace Bushnell, the journalist who wrote the bestselling book of essays about her and her circle of friends’ lives in NYC in the ’90s.
Related: No, Kim Cattrall Will Never Play Samantha Again
When SATC was adapted into the HBO series, Candace’s TV counterpart (played unforgettably by the amazing Sarah Jessica Parker) grew into its own alternate universe version of the actual person.
[Fun fact: Just as Carrie dated a man played by an IRL ballet dancer on the show, Candace also had a whirlwind romance with the principal dancer of the New York City Ballet. Only Candace married hers, and if Carrie had stayed with Alexandr’s manipulative ass, fans would have freakin’ rioted.]
https://giphy.com/gifs/city-edition-2OrtQciL1qdAQ
OK, so you know Carrie’s story. But what about Candace’s?
Well, as you may have heard she and husband Charles Askegard decided to divorce in 2011 (the real life dancer reportedly had an affair with a ballerina), making the author single once again.
Since then she has been researching and writing about the subject of dating all over again, only this time in her 50s (she just turned 60 last December), for her upcoming book Is There Still Sex In The City?
Now as the book is about to hit shelves, Candace is doing promo and dropping some bombshells we weren’t ready to hear!
Get the highlights (below)!
Contents [hide]
She And Her Friends Still Hook Up With Lots Of Young Guys
Speaking about the “research” she was doing for her book, Candace told The Hollywood Reporter:
“I really look for patterns; something that happens repeatedly. For instance, the cubbing…”
Cubs (in this instance, there are lots of definitions) are young guys who go for hot older women, aka “cougars.” Candace says:
“That happened again and again and it was curious, because it was something my friends and I were not expecting, that young guys would find you attractive.”
Good for you, gurl!
She Almost Got Vaginal Rejuvenation Surgery
Candace openly talks about her regular botox injections, but she nearly went way further with her cosmetic work… further south…
Speaking to The NY Post, the author confirmed she had seriously considered getting the “Mona Lisa” procedure: vaginal laser rejuvenation treatment.
So, what stopped her? Not fear, not self-consciousness — logistics. She explained:
“Here’s the thing: If I was going to do it, I was going to have to do a before and after. So I was going to have to find someone to have sex with as, you know, an experiment. If I’m just going to spend $3,000, I want to know if it really works or not, OK? But I couldn’t find that person.”
Geez, no one respects science anymore.
https://giphy.com/gifs/love-carrie-bradshaw-Od8cAW8mHzNuw
She Regrets Not Having Kids
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Candace revealed her regrets at never having children:
“When I was in my thirties and forties, I didn’t think about it. Then when I got divorced and I was in my fifties, I started to see the impact of not having children and of truly being alone. I do see that people with children have an anchor in a way that people who have no kids don’t.”
Man, Sex And The City 3 might have been really depressing…
Luckily she still had her friends.
She recounted to The Hollywood Reporter:
“I found myself in my mid-50s and living a life that I didn’t expect. I think I didn’t expect it emotionally. At the beginning when I got divorced I didn’t know anybody else who was divorced, and my only single friends were like me: single and without children. So, we really made a bond that we were going to look after each other.”
Classic SATC.
Candace Wrote A Book About Jennifer Aniston & Angelina Jolie
Speaking about books she wrote that would never get published, Candace told THR:
“There are times when I just like to write stuff that is not commercial. One of the things I wrote, I called it The Two Misses Stones — I didn’t ever finish it, [but] I got this idea because of Joyce Carol Oates. She wrote a book called Blonde, about Marilyn Monroe. It’s the most amazing book — I don’t know how she channeled Marilyn the way she did. I think I got bucked off my horse, and was in the hospital, and this book was something that I read when I had to read — so I picked it up and got hooked on it.”
So who was her Marilyn? Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, apparently…
“And then I had the idea to do a book about Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, so I just really tried to get into the heads of two different actresses. I got obsessed with the idea of being that famous, because I always wonder what that would be like. It must be really freaky. That book about Monroe is so freaky, because of what they have to endure. I always find that topic fascinating.”
Fascinating?
But we can think of at least two people who might object to that novel’s existence…
She Once Investigated Jeffrey Epstein
In her job as a journalist in NYC in the ’90s, Candace once had a run-in with Jeffrey Epstein.
For those who don’t know, the billionaire pedophile who used to party with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton was convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old in the mid 2000s (but given a shockingly lenient sentence given the evidence against him).
The strange, scandalous case has come to light once again recently as he has been charged with sex trafficking, but Candace was on the job first… unfortunately:
“There was a rogues’ gallery of men who there were shady rumors [about], and he was one of those guys. It wasn’t really that dramatic, but I went to his apartment when a mutual friend got me invited to a cocktail party at his house. It was in a townhouse that felt very bland to me and hotel-ish. I didn’t see anything going on, and he might have been there for two seconds and then he disappeared. I was trying to get something [material] so I went into the kitchen — I never heard that he raped anybody, but there had been something about models and a private plane, that he had parties on the plane, nobody was exactly sure where he got his money, there were all kinds of rumors — so I started talking to someone to try and find out where he kept his private plane because I had nothing.”
And Epstein made sure things stayed that way. What happened next may not have been “that dramatic” to the real-life Carrie Bradshaw, but it would have freaked us the eff out!
“I was getting information, and then the door flies in and a bodyguard-type [person] walks in asking why I want to know about the plane. I left, and the next day I got a call from my friend and he was like, ‘Oh my god, they found out you were a reporter, you were asking questions,’ and then I got a phone call from someone on his team saying, ‘This is his lawyer, there’s nothing to investigate. Don’t investigate him. Don’t look into his activities. Don’t go up to him at parties. Don’t ask questions about him.'”
Totally not suspicious.
“They probably called my editor as well, and I then I was like, ‘You know, I’d like to live…’ It takes a particular kind of reporter to do that kind of story, and it’s just not me.”
Yowza. Well, we’re certainly glad she kept safe… but we wish there had been that particular kind of reporter digging in, considering what we now know.
[Image via Mr. Blue/Anthony Dixon/WENN.]
Related Posts
