”Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Those wise words from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ring true for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Carrie Bradshaw and Ferris Bueller might be Hollywood’s unlikeliest couple, but Sarah and Matthew are inseparable. Join us as we get to know the power couple, their careers, family, and the secret to their long-lasting marriage.
Matthew’s Childhood
Matthew Broderick was born on March 21st, 1962, in Manhattan’s West Side, New York City. His mother was Patricia, a playwright, actress, and painter, while his dad, James, was an actor and World War II veteran.
He and his two sisters attended the City and Country School in Manhattan before attending high school at Manhattan’s private Walden School. Matthew first caught the acting bug in high school plays and decided to attend the HB Studio, New York’s renowned acting school.
Sarah’s Childhood
Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, on March 25th, 1965. Her parents were Barbara Keck, a nursery school teacher, and Stephen Parker, an entrepreneur and journalist. Sarah’s parents divorced when she was three, and her mother married truck-driving account executive Paul Forste. Sarah had seven siblings between the two marriages, including actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker.
Her mom and stepdad moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York state, and Sarah studied singing and ballet in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and New York’s School of American Ballet.
Matthew’s Early Career
Matthew’s first major theater role came opposite his father in Horton Foote’s On Valentine’s Day. The young star stated, “Before I knew it, I was like this guy in a hot play. And suddenly, all these doors opened…” Tragically, James Broderick passed away in 1982 before his son became a film star.
Matthew first played a hacker in 1983’s Wargames before starring in 1985’s Ladyhawke. Then, in 1986, Broderick landed his most iconic role. He played the title slacker in John Hughes’ seminal ’80s coming-of-age movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Car Wreck
Matthew dated his Ferris Bueller co-star, Jennifer Grey. On August 5th, 1987, while holidaying in Northern Ireland, he swerved their rented car into the wrong lane and crashed head-on into another car. Tragically, the mother-and-daughter occupants of the other vehicle lost their lives instantly.
Broderick suffered a fractured leg and ribs, a collapsed lung, and a concussion. He was charged with causing fatalities by dangerous driving. But instead of receiving five years in prison, he was convicted of careless driving and fined $175.
Matthew’s Girlfriends
Regarding girlfriends, Matthew’s high school sweetheart was actress and future Mrs. Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick. Oh, and Remember Matthew’s first stage role in Horton Foote’s On Valentine’s Day? Well, while shooting the 1985 film adaptation, he dated the writer, Horton Foote’s actress daughter, Daisy Foote.
Then, in 1987, Matthew starred in Project X, in which he and Helen Hunt free chimpanzees used in secret Air Force projects. Broderick and Hunt dated for about a year after bonding over bonobos.
Sarah’s Early Career
Sarah’s first stage role was appearing with four of her siblings in a St. Louis, Missouri, production of The Sound of Music. She made her Broadway debut aged 11 in the 1976 revival of The Innocents. In 1979, she played Annie; by 1984, she danced with Kevin Bacon in Footloose.
SJP appeared in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Flight of the Navigator, which should have starred Matthew Broderick but didn’t. In 1991, she starred with Steve Martin in the underrated LA Story.
Sarah’s Boyfriends
Matthew wasn’t the only one who dated fellow Hollywood stars. In 1984, SJP dated Michael J. Fox before he became famous as Back to the Future‘s Marty McFly. Next, she dated Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr. from 1984 to 1991, once saying, ” I believed I was the person holding him together.”
Sarah had a busy 1991, dating John Kennedy Jr., singer-songwriter Joshua Kadison, and Nicolas Cage. But as winter descended on New York, everything was about to change for the better.
First Meeting
After returning from The City of Angels to her home in the Big Apple, Sarah Jessica Parker met Matthew Broderick for the first time on a chilly, windswept night in November 1991. Although both actors had been working in Hollywood, they were actually introduced by SJP’s brothers.
Toby and Pippin had founded New York’s Naked Angels Theater Company. Matthew Broderick directed a play at the theatre group, and the siblings thought he and Sarah might make a good couple. And they were right!
Courting Couple
Talking to the New York Times in 1996, Sarah revealed the shy young actor eventually asked her out on February 1st, 1992, by leaving her a voicemail: Matthew “left a very charming, very self-effacing message on the machine… You know, ‘Hi, it’s Matthew Broderick.’ You had to use your last name!”
A few weeks later, their first date was a movie trip. Hopefully, they saw something cool from that year, like Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, not Sylvester Stallone’s Stop or My Mom Will Shoot!
He’s the One
Sarah knew Matthew was her soulmate almost from the moment she saw him. Three decades after they first met that cold and dark New York night, she appeared on an episode of her best friend’s TV show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
During the Valentine’s Day 2022 appearance, a flirty Andy Cohen said he thought his BFF Sarah would make the perfect Valentine, but SJP insisted she knew Matthew was her Mr. Right from the get-go.
Black Wedding Dress
In one interview, SJP said, “I never thought about a wedding dress. Never. Had not one daydream about it.” In another interview with best bud Andy Cohen, she admitted, “I just was too embarrassed to spend any time looking for a wedding dress. There was a store that I liked that I knew, and I just went and got whatever they had hanging.”
Or maybe she didn’t wear white because she was trying to tell us she wasn’t such an innocent girl! Speaking of which…
Sex and the City
As Matthew starred in Godzilla, Election, and Inspector Gadget, Sarah’s long-term agent, Kevin Huvane, landed SJP her most famous role. She played fashionista, columnist, and serial cheater Carrie Bradshaw in HBO’s hugely popular comedy drama Sex and the City, based on Candace Bushnell’s books. The show ran for six years and two movies.
Carrie Bradshaw became one of TV’s greatest female characters. SJP bagged two Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Carrie’s Embarrassment
Some years later, Sarah reflected on her time on Sex and the City in a New York Times profile. She confessed that she used to “get so nervous” when her husband would visit her on the SATC set. She’d tell co-stars Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis whenever Matthew showed up: “Matthew’s here! Don’t look at me… It’s all so embarrassing!”
SJP was probably so because she was nothing like Carrie Bardshaw’s narcissistic character and didn’t want her husband to see her acting like that.
Fashion Icon
Sarah Jessica Parker was already famous for her movie roles, but Sex and the City skyrocketed her to worldwide stardom. With global fame, little old SJP from Nelsonville, Ohio, became a true international fashion icon for the turn of the millennia.
At the height of the show’s popularity in 2000, Parker hosted the MTV Movie Awards, during which she famously and hurriedly changed into and out of 14 different outfits. Talk about a quick change!
SJP Fashion Lines
After SATC wrapped, Parker signed a $38 million deal with Gap. From 2005, she released her own perfumes, Lovely, Covet, Dawn, Endless, and Twilight. In 2007, she launched her Bitten fashion line with discount clothing chain Steve & Barry’s. The actress has also launched the SJP Collection footwear line at Nordstrom and became Jordache Jeans’ spokeswoman.
More recently, she partnered with Gilt to launch a ready-to-wear bridal collection, produced a range of New Zealand wines, and curated an accessories collection with Lele Sadoughi.
It’s a Boy!
Five years after walking down the aisle, on October 28th, 2002, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick welcomed their first child, a baby boy. They named him James Wilke Broderick after Matthew’s late father.
The media-shy couple successfully kept their children out of the spotlight. James is a student but recently made his TV debut in a blink-and-you-miss-it role, playing a country club valet in Natalie Portman’s TV series, Lady in the Lake.
Crazy in Love
In another interview for the September 2013 Harper’s Bazaar magazine issue, Sarah elaborated: “I love Matthew Broderick. Call me crazy, but I love him. We can only be in the marriage we are. We’re very devoted to our family and our lives.”
She continued, “I love our life. I love that he’s the father of my children, and it’s because of him that there’s this whole other world that I love.” The only way you might be crazy, SJP, is — in the words of Beyoncé — crazy in love!
Keep on Talking
While Broderick tends to keep a lower profile than his wife, he appeared on a 2014 episode of the Meredith Vieira Show. He said the reason his relationship with Sarah works so well and they have stayed together so long is because they communicate effectively.
“We really are friends beyond everything else, and we talk a lot. I guess I know how cliché that is. Too much silence is definitely not a good idea.”
20th Wedding Anniversary
In 2017, Sarah and Matthew celebrated 20 years of marriage. SJP posted a wedding photo on Instagram, saying, “It flew by, Baby. Good golly, I love you. XXX, Your wife.” The next few years did fly by. Sarah starred in Did You Hear About the Morgans?, New Year’s Eve, and starring in and producing the TV show Divorce.
Meanwhile, Matthew took a break from musical theater to return to the small screen to play protagonist Michael Burr in Netflix’s comedy-drama Daybreak.
And Just Like That…
Then, in 2021, Sarah returned as Carrie Bradshaw in HBO Max’s Sex and the City sequel, And Just Like That… Carrie was joined by Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), but Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) didn’t show up until the second season.
This time around, the girls were in their fifties and faced a whole new set of trials and tribulations, and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) even showed up! However, fans of the original series and critics slated the unnecessary and inferior series.
Plaza Suite
In 2022, Matthew and Sarah reunited for their Broadway show, Plaza Suite. Broderick told the Wall Street Journal, “We very rarely both work at the same time. This is the first time since we’ve had three children.”
When they’re not working, the celebrity couple renovates their two West Side townhouses, which cost $35 million, where Matthew grew up. When they’re not in New York, they spend time at their second home in County Donegal, Ireland, where Matthew spent his childhood summers.
Cold Feet
Broderick also admitted he got cold feet about starring alongside his wife in Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite. He told United Airlines Hemispheres magazine, “The fear is that I don’t want [us being] a real couple to make you not believe the fantasy of it. I want it to be a believable play.”
He continued, “So I always get scared that you might not get lost in the play enough.” Luckily, any wobbles he had soon faded: “But as soon as we started it, I didn’t feel that.”
