October 25, 2017


Kim Cattrall, whom many know as Sex And The City's Samantha Jones, opened up to Piers Morgan earlier this week on his UK series: Life Stories. When the topic of why she hadn't had children came up, Cattrall was honest about how she made the choice to not go through IVF, even though she and her new husband, Mark Levinson, were ready to start a family.

In 1998, at age 42, the newly married Kim Cattrall considered how she would manage IVF treatments during the grueling filming schedule for Sex And The City.  "Wow, I have 19-hour days on this series, " she recalled thinking. "My Monday morning would start at 4:45 a.m. and go to one or two in the morning. How could I possibly continue to do that, especially in my early 40s?"

IVF itself would be a commitment she wasn't sure she could manage, let alone pregnancy and a baby. It was the first time she really realized she wasn’t going to be a mom. “I thought, ‘I don’t think it is going to happen.’ It was the first moment — it was extraordinary — in my life where I thought, ‘Maybe I’m just not going to do this."

Cattrall says that not having children was a combination of “fate, timing, luck... and destiny.” But the actress also remembers thinking then that she had the opportunity to be a mother in other ways. “I have a place to be a mom here, not a biological mom, but a mom and an auntie and a friend," she said. "And that has really given me so much. As much as I give, I get twofold back.”

Two years ago, Cattrall shared her experience as another kind of mother on the BBC, stating:
"I am not a biological parent, but I am a parent. I have young actors and actresses that I mentor, I have nieces and nephews that I am very close to. There is a way to become a mother in this day and age which doesn't include your name on the child's birth certificate. You can express that maternal side, very clearly, very strongly. It feels very satisfying.".

And in 2010, she told the London Evening Standard that she doesn't feel sad about not having kids. "It's fine, it really is. I'm a pretty good auntie and I have a lot of friends with kids."

Here’s to Kim - and to everyone’s journey in Otherhood. There are many ways to mother.