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I would like to humbly request both Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s skincare routines, because it feels like those two have been together as long as I’ve been alive—which is actually almost true, given they’ve been married since 1997!—yet pictures of them belie the longevity of their relationship. (Somehow James, their eldest, is 23, while the couple’s twin girls, Marion and Tabitha, are 16?)
Parker and Broderick have been an A-list couple for several decades now, worked together more than once (most recently, doing Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite in New York and London), and seen each other through some major career highlights—yet they also seem blissfully low-key. So, what’s their story? Below, seven key moments from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s relationship.
November 1991: They meet
In her mid-20s, a little after exiting her lengthy relationship with Robert Downey Jr., Parker was introduced to Broderick by her brother Pippin. (Broderick’s childhood friend Kenneth Lonergan was also present for the meeting: a trip to the movies.) It would be some time, however, before Broderick asked her out. “My memory is that literally months passed when I didn’t ask her for a date,” he recalled in 1996. “Then he 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,” Parker added.
1996: They (briefly) appear together on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Now living together, the couple also became co-stars for a time when Parker joined the mid-’90s Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, replacing Megan Mullally in the part of Rosemary Pilkington. Broderick, who had won a Tony for his starring role as J. Pierrepont Finch before departing the production in the fall of 1995, returned to How to Succeed the following March to appear opposite Parker for four months.
May 1997: They marry
One of Carrie Bradshaw’s most famous looks was her Vivienne Westwood wedding outfit (complete with that little feather hat), but in real life, Parker’s wedding day was much less extravagant. She wore black (a choice she has since expressed regret over) to marry Broderick in front of 100 people at the Angel Oresanz Synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. Broderick’s sister Jane, a reverend, officiated the ceremony.
June 1998: Broderick is by Parker’s side at the Sex and the City premiere
Broderick happily showed his support at SATC’s 1998 premiere party, even coordinating his floral tie with Parker’s toile de juoy cocktail dress.
October 2002: They welcome their first baby
James Wilkie Broderick is now an actor who’s performed with his dad on the CBS mystery series Elspeth. The experience was clearly special for Matthew, who told People: “I was so proud and happy.”
June 2009: They welcome their second and third babies
It’s probably not a huge surprise that SJP’s signature sense of style runs in the family, as her teenage twins Marion and Tabitha proved when they attended a red carpet premiere with their parents in April—each wearing a pair of very Carrie (and Sarah Jessica)-appropriate heels.
February 2022: They appear on Broadway together—and then reprise their roles in the West End two years later
“We had not been dreaming, hoping, plotting, begging: What is going to be the thing where we finally work together?” Parker told Vogue contributing editor Adam Green of re-teaming with Broderick. “We were very satisfied with how we pursued our own careers separately, and I loved being his audience.”
Nevertheless, after a two-year delay due to the COVID pandemic, in 2022 Parker and Broderick made their second major appearance in a Broadway show together, starring in a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite. It was, unsurprisingly, a smash hit, eventually transferring across the pond to the West End.
