How “Sex and the City” Star Cynthia Nixon Looked for Happiness With a Man but Found It With a Woman

The Sex and the City character, Miranda Hobbes, has been a role model for millions of ambitious working women for many years. In the series, she showed that a woman can be successful in both her career and personal life. In real life, actress Cynthia Nixon who played Miranda has also become a role model for many people. She was not afraid to change her life — she broke up with her boyfriend, married a woman, and became an LGBTQ activist.

At CHEERY, we believe that each of us can learn a lot from this courageous woman who wasn’t scared to risk her career for love. And her courage paid off.

Cynthia Nixon’s story is similar to the one of Miranda Hobbes.

In the early 2000s, Cynthia Nixon was at the peak of success. Her character in the series Sex and the City became iconic. Many working women all over the world could relate to Miranda Hobbes. They admired the way she has torn apart between work and family but still managed to find the right balance.

And Cynthia’s real life was very similar to the life of her character. She also was more successful than her partner, worked a lot, and did her best to spend time with her children.

Back in 1988, Cynthia began to date a school teacher, Danny Mozes. At the time, she already played in movies, but there were still 10 years ahead before she rose to international fame. In 1996, they had their first child — daughter Samantha. The couple led a quiet life rarely appearing at red carpet events together.

Even though Mozes later became part of show business — he is a celebrity photographer now and has appeared in a few movies — it was his partner who was always in the limelight. In 2002, the couple had a second child — son Sam, and a year later, they quietly separated. The reason behind the couple’s split was never made officially open to the public.

“I had never dated a woman before or even kissed a woman.”

Nixon met her future wife, Christine Marinoni, while she was still in a relationship with Mozes. Both women were public education activists, and this made them close. At first, it was just a union of like-minded people. But a year after she broke up with the father of her children, Nixon finally admitted that she cared for Christine.

“I had never dated a woman before or even kissed a woman or anything,” she revealed. It was a new life stage for Cynthia who had to discover herself anew, and her girlfriend supported her in this, “When we started seeing each other, Christine kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for me to panic about what this would mean — to my career or to myself — as if somehow I just hadn’t noticed that she was a woman; and then she met my mother and that was when she stopped worrying about it.”

Even though Nixon and Christine were in a relationship, the actress still could brace herself to come out. Her then-publicist discouraged her from doing it, saying that it could ruin her career. She changed her mind after meeting Kelly Bush, an openly-gay publicist, who suggested she open the truth to the world.

The long-awaited wedding on a rooftop.

The couple got engaged in 2009 but could tie the knot only a few years later when same-sex marriages were legalized in New York. Just like her Sex and the City character, Cynthia had a small, private wedding ceremony. They got married on a city rooftop. The actress was dressed in an elegant dress, and her partner wore a suit.

Unlike Nixon, Marinoni didn’t have children and had never thought of having them. But love can change people and their views of life. In 2011, Cynthia gave birth to their son, Max, and this became a revelation to Christine. She took a break from work to be a stay-at-home mom, “I couldn’t actually envision being happily married with kids. I thought I’m never going to get that. I think it’s amazing that I got that. It’s huge.”

Nyxon’s life resembles those of her characters again.

Do you remember we mentioned above that Cynthia’s life resembled Miranda’s? This happened again in the series And Just Like That.... In the series, her character also divorced her husband and found happiness with a woman. And Cynthia became a role model for millions of viewers all over the world again.

In Ratched, the actress played a queer character. According to the script, her character fell in love with Mildred Ratched, played by Sarah Paulson. “These kinds of lesbians who are part of American history who have been all but erased in our movies and TV shows — Ryan is working to put them back in the narrative,” Nixon commented.

So, Cynthia’s movie career has become a reflection of her fight for people’s right to be free in their choice of whom they want to love and be happy with. And Christine is always by her side. In an interview, Nyxon said, “Falling in love with my wife was one of the great delights and surprises of my life.”

Have you already met the love of your life? If so, how fast did you realize that this person was your soulmate? Tell us in the comments below.