Sarah Jessica Parker Recalls 'Sobbing' Over Magazine's 'Really Mean' Comments About Her Looks

Sarah Jessica Parker has opened up about how comments about her appearance affected her during the original run of Sex And The City.

The And Just Like That star is the latest guest on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call her Daddy, where she spoke candidly about some of the criticism that’s been levelled against her over the course of her career.

Before Sex And The City, Sarah Jessica explained, there’d been “no chatter” about her in the press – but that changed when she began playing Carrie Bradshaw in the hit show, which was something that she recalled “a real test of my coping mechanisms”.

Asked what got to her the most, SJP responded: “Just discussions of my physical person. Like stuff that I couldn’t change, and wouldn’t change, and had never considered changing, or even still after hearing something that was like, ‘What? Somebody would say that?’ Even still… no interest in changing it.”

Sarah Jessica admitted that in an era before social media, what upset her was that she didn’t feel she had an opportunity to retaliate or be part of the conversation.

“I didn’t feel like I could sit in a room, and someone would say to me, ‘You’re really unattractive.’ And then I could say, ‘Wow, um, well first of all, that’s hard to hear. But second of all, why do you seem angry about it?’ Or, ‘Why do you feel it’s necessary to say it?’,” she explained.

Recalling one unnamed magazine’s “really mean” remarks about the way she looked, Sarah Jessica said she was so upset that she ended up calling her friends in floods of tears.

“It was like a kick in the rubber parts,” the Emmy winner admitted. “I was just like, ‘Why is this a problem? Why is this deserving of your time? And why do you seem to delight in saying it?’.

“I was sobbing because it felt so purposeful. And I think that’s the only time I really cried about it.”

Parodying her on-screen alter-ego, she quipped: “I couldn’t help but wonder: Would you say it to my face?”

Fortunately, Sarah Jessica is now in a place where she’s more comfortable hitting back at her critics.

Last month, she spoke to HuffPost UK about some of the jibes that have been aimed at her Sex And The City and And Just Like That character over the years – pointing out a hefty double standard when it came to the way men and women are depicted on screen.

Read more of our interview with Sarah Jessica and her And Just Like That co-stars Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Nicole Ari Parker here.