How Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick Keep the Love Alive After 25 Years of Marriage
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The two '80s stars tied the knot in 1997 and have been living happily ever after.
Sarah Jessica Parker’s personal life is nothing like her professional career. While starring as Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City solidified the actress’ status as a single-gal icon, on the home front, she and husband Matthew Broderick have enjoyed one of Hollywood’s most long-running, rock-solid marriages.
Keep reading to find out how SJP met Broderick, what makes their marriage work and everything else you want to know about the secrets to this A-list couple’s success.
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How did Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker meet?
Considering they were already famous in the 1980s—he played the title role in the teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, while she starred in the cult-fave TV series Square Pegs and the feature film Footloose—you might think they met through the Brat Pack social circles of Tinseltown. But Parker and Broderick have said that their first meeting was actually in Manhattan, in 1991, through the New York City theater scene. “[Broderick] had become friends with [Parker’s] older brothers, Pippin and Toby, after he had directed a play at the Naked Angels Theater Company in which Toby performed,” The New York Times reported in 1996. The couple told the outlet that they went on one date to the movies, then Broderick ghosted Parker until finally calling her up and asking her to out again on Feb. 1, 1992. (Yes, SJP remembered the exact date!)
How do SJP and Matthew Broderick keep the love alive?
They don't bring their work home. “It doesn’t come up a lot,” Broderick told Parade in 2020. “Maybe we’ll talk about it, but everybody needs a break to think about something else.”
The two lovebirds, who celebrated 25 years of marriage in 2022, regularly finish each other’s sentences and laugh at each other’s jokes. She gazes at him while he relays an anecdote. At one point, he instinctively walks over to a desk to fetch her a tissue so she can wipe off the coffee mug ring left on the table.
Photo by Karl Feile/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
When did Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick get married?
Parker and Broderick tied the knot at a surprise ceremony in lower Manhattan on May 19, 1997. The 100 or so friends and family on the guest list believed they were just attending a plain, old party, but wound up witnessing the couple's nuptials in a ceremony officiated by Broderick’s sister, Janet Broderick Kraft, an Episcopalian priest. Parker ditched typical wedding tradition—and hinted at her future as a fashion icon—by foregoing a white gown in favor of a dramatic, black frock.
Parker had hinted for years beforehand that she'd hoped to marry Broderick. In 1993, she told David Letterman in a TV interview that Broderick “couldn’t be nicer… unless he chose to, you know, make me his wife and that would make him just perfect.”
Related: Did Carrie Move Downtown for SATC‘s Reboot?
How many kids do Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have?
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick have three kids. Parker gave birth to their first child, a boy, on Oct. 28, 2002, in New York City. Her pregnancy, which took place smack in the middle of Sex and the City’s run, caused the show’s fifth season to be cut back to only eight episodes. On June 22, 2009, Parker and Broderick welcomed twin daughters via surrogate.
What are SJP and Matthew Broderick's kids’ names and ages?
Son James Wilkie—named after Matthew's late father, actor James Broderick—turned 20 in 2022, while his twin sisters, Marion Elwell and Tabitha Hodge, turned 13 this year.
Related: Sarah Jessica Parker's Best Roles
What have Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick said about each other?
Adorably, Matthew and SJP still coo over one another like newlyweds. In November 2020, Broderick opened up about what keeps their marriage going after more than 20 years. “I don't know the secret at all, but I, you know, but I'm very grateful and I love her and, it's amazing,” Broderick said. "I mean, I can't believe that it's been that long. It doesn't feel like it."
Meanwhile, Parker marked their 23rd wedding anniversary in May 2020 by writing alongside a throwback pic of the couple on Instagram, “23 years. We’ve come a long way, baby.”
Despite being instantly recognizable public personas, though, the two also work hard to keep their private life private. Back in March 2020, Parker told Parade, "There are still lines that we don’t cross ... We don’t talk about our marriage publicly because it’s ours, and it’s the one thing left that’s really and truly ours.”
Where do Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick live?
Parker and Broderick have always been Manhattanites who love living downtown—specifically, in NYC’s West Village. In 2000, before starting a family, the couple purchased a townhouse on Charles Street for $2.995 million. Fans were able to catch a glimpse of that home’s interior in 2014 when Parker invited Vogue’s cameras inside for the magazine first-ever “73 Questions” interview.
Parker and Broderick sold that townhouse in early 2021 for a cool $15 million. After the sale, they moved to nearby West 11th Street. In 2016, the couple purchased side-by-side townhouses on that street for $34.5 million and have been having them converted into one mega-sized residence—a spread even a guy like Mr. Big would surely swoon over!
