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Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have one of the longest marriages in Hollywood, but they have managed to keep much of their private life private outside of a few strategic announcements. This is especially surprising considering how huge Parker got as the iconic Carrie Bradshaw on HBO’s Sex and the City.
The couple seem to really understand one another, and that likely comes from the fact they understand their shared industry very well, too. They started dating in the early nineties, married in the late nineties, and went on to have three children together.
Here’s a timeline of the couple’s 30-plus year relationship.
November 1991:
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick met after being introduced to Parker by her brothers, Pippin and Toby, who founded the Naked Angels Theater Company. Both Parker and Broderick were already in the business, and the actor directed a play at the siblings’ theater. They were then introduced.
1996:
After five years of dating, the couple finally performed together side-by-side. Their debut was on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Parker told the Los Angeles Times, “He’s probably the funniest fellow I’ve met in my whole life…He’s so bright, so handsome, I think he’s the most handsome man I’ve seen in my life. And he inspires me. I’m mad for him, totally.”
She also shared how they got together the first time.
“He left a very charming, very self-effacing message on the machine,” Parker told the New York Times that same year. “You know, ‘Hi, it’s Matthew Broderick.’ You had to use your last name.”
May 1997:
On May 19, 1997, the couple tied the knot at New York City’s Angel Orensanz Synagogue. They did not prep anyone for a wedding, inviting 100 friends to a party that then turned into a surprise ceremony.
October 2002:
On October 28, 2002, the couple welcomed their first child, a baby boy named James Wilkie, after the actor’s late grandfather, James Broderick.
May 2008:
Broderick joins Parker at the premiere of the Sex and the City movie.
June 2009:
On June 22, 2009, they welcomed twin girls via surrogate, named Marion and Tabitha. In an interview with Vogue, Parker said the couple “tried and tried and tried to get pregnant” in the conventional way, but it did not work out.
“I would give birth as often as I could, if I could,” she said. “I cherished all the milestones, the good and the bad.”
December 2011:
After about twenty years together, Parker admitted that things between them weren’t always smooth sailing in an interview with The Telegraph.
“We’ve been together for 20 years and you have good days, you have decent days, and you have bad days. That’s a marriage,” she said. “That’s a relationship. That’s a friendship, even—relationships outside the marriage run the same course.”
Parker added, “If you’re in it for the long haul, and you want meaningful relationships, you are going to go through lots of different periods.”
November 2014:
Because of her work as the star of the majorly popular Sex and the City, Parker is generally the one getting interviewed, and Broderick tends to keep a low profile. But while on the Meredith Vieira Show, he talked about why things have worked out for them long-term.
“We really are friends beyond everything else, and we talk a lot,” he said. “Keep talking, I guess, I know how cliché that is. Too much silence is definitely not a good idea.”
May 2017:
For their 20th anniversary, Parker shared a sweet wedding photo on Instagram with the caption, “It flew by Baby. Good golly I love you. XXX, Your wife.”
January 2018:
Parker appeared on an episode of Sophia Amoruso‘s podcast, Girlboss Radio, and said she and Broderick often end up being apart for work.
“I know this sounds nuts, but we have lives that allow us to be away and come back together,” she said. “His work life takes him here, and mine takes me there. In some ways, I think that’s been enormously beneficial because we have so much to share in a way.”
February 2020:
The couple finally returned to the stage together again for a Broadway show called Plaza Suite that made it to the pre-run before being shut down by the pandemic. In March 2020, they told WSJ. Magazine that there’s a reason they waited so long to bring the band back together.
“We very rarely both work at the same time,” Broderick explained.
“This is the first time since we’ve had three children that we … are even prepared,” Parker added. “And it’s hard. We have a son who’s about to be away for spring semester. But I say all the time, there are families with parents serving in the military who are away all the time, you know? Just endless, impossible situations.”
November 2020:
While on the SiriusXM show Quarantined with Bruce, Broderick shared another little “secret” to marriage: There is none.
“I don’t know the secret at all, but I’m very grateful, and I love her. It’s amazing,” he said.
“You know, speaking of how talented my wife is, I should also say that getting to do this play, even though we only just did it in Boston for a little while … she was so, so good in it,” he said. “And I had never acted with her onstage and had never really acted with her at all. And I was just reminded of how funny and smart and what a great comic actor she is—or actor, never mind the comic part.”
He added, “She’s very good at it. So I hope everybody gets to see her do it.”
December 2021:
Parker is supported by her husband and son at the premiere of And Just Like That…
February 2022:
Parker appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and shared that her first kiss with Broderick “was outside an apartment building,” and the second while heading to the subway station.
“I had a Ricola in my mouth. It was the dead of winter and I thought—well, it just seemed like a third party. So I spit it out into my gloved hand because I was getting on the subway … It was stuck on my glove,” she said.
And it did ruin the glove.
April 2022:
Broderick took his turn on WWHL with Andy Cohen, and was asked when he knew he wanted to be with Parker forever.
“Oh, the first time I met her,” he said. “I saw her walking down the street and thought, ‘That’s it.’”
May 2022:
For their 25th marriage anniversary on May 19, Parker shared an intimate pic with Broderick on Instagram.
September 2022:
The couple appeared together at the Hocus Pocus 2 premiere, in which Parker plays evil witch Sarah Sanderson, along with their daughters Tabitha Hodge and Marion Loretta Elwell.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.