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Kim Cattrall Gave Up Having Kids For 'Sex And The City'

She's even more like Samantha Jones than we thought.
Kim Cattrall arrives for the Laureus Sports Awards in St Petersburg, Feb. 18, 2008. (REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk)
Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters
Kim Cattrall arrives for the Laureus Sports Awards in St Petersburg, Feb. 18, 2008. (REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk)

Fans of "Sex and the City" know that the character of Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall in the HBO series, was a no-holds-barred, career woman who did what she wanted, when she wanted.

And now, the actress is opening up about the fact that her own career choices on the show changed her life.

On Piers Morgan's "Life Stories" on Monday, Cattrall revealed that taking the role on the hit show meant not having children, and it's a choice she made knowingly. The B.C.-raised actress, who was 42 when the show first aired, noted that she and her then-husband Mark Levinson had been considering IVF, but the demands of the reproductive technology would make her job very difficult.

"That was my early 40s and I had just started filming 'Sex and the City,' the chances of getting pregnant with these procedures was, everyone was talking about it," Entertainment Tonight reports her as saying.

Maybe I'm just not going to [have children].

"I thought to myself, 'Wow, I have 19-hour days on this series'... My Monday morning would start at 4:45 a.m. and go to one or two in the morning. ... "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 [have children]."

Cattrall, 61, has been speaking out plenty lately about her experiences on the show, as it was announced in September that a third movie would not be produced, reportedly because she didn't want to do it.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall And Cynthia Nixon arriving for the U.K. premiere of Sex And The City 2, Leicester Square, London. (Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)
UK Press via Getty Images
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall And Cynthia Nixon arriving for the U.K. premiere of Sex And The City 2, Leicester Square, London. (Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)

In an Instagram comment to a fan in early October, she wrote, "I've moved on. 61 isn't 53 or 41. I have learned so much from our Sam. She was my hero but I want to rest & not work as much as I have been doing for years. I want a less hectic life. My decision reflects where I am in my life & I can't change that without being unhappy. I hope you'll understand. Kim," People reports.

But it's not as though Cattrall didn't influence plenty of people during her time as Samantha Jones, and that too was deliberate, she told Morgan, in choosing to mentor young actresses.

I have a place to be a mom here — not a biological mom, but a mom and an auntie and a friend.

"I thought, 'I have a place to be a mom here — not a biological mom, but a mom and an auntie and a friend," she said in the interview, according to Vanity Fair. "And that has really given me so much. As much as I give, I get twofold back."

Plus, for all those women out there who choose not to have kids, she taught them exactly how to celebrate — by throwing a "I don't have a baby" shower. Cheers to that.

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