Kim Cattrall has bravely shared her experience with grief in an emotional discourse about the tragic losses within her family. As she gears up for her return to Sex and the City, the heartbreaking reality of these personal tragedies becomes all the more poignant.
In a candid conversation with The Sunday Times, the 66-year-old opened up about the "sudden and unexpected" passing of her younger brother, Chris Cattrall, in 2018.
Kim's relationship with her two sisters, who reside in Canada, served as a backdrop to her reflections on her family's losses over the past decade. Her mother, Shane Cattrall, passed away in December 2022, as she announced on Instagram. Back in 2012, she shared the news of her father, Dennis Cattrall's death, via Twitter.
Kim's way of coping with her brother's death was markedly different. "With my mum, she was 93 and it was a slow decline," she revealed. "But my brother, this was out of the natural order. This wasn’t supposed to happen."
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She further divulged the raw emotion tied to her brother's untimely demise. "You remember where you were, what happened, what was said. It is all so accessible, all the time, a weight that is always with you and never leaves."
Chris Cattrall had gone missing for five days before his death was confirmed, sparking a frantic search in his home province of Alberta, Canada. During this harrowing period, Kim took to her social media, sharing his photo and enlisting her fans' help in finding him. She termed the period of relentless police searching as an "extraordinary few days," where everything in her was on "high alert because he could be saved."
The star of How I Met Your Father expressed that she assumed the "role" of rescuer within her family, a sentiment that she has worked to retire since her brother's passing. "They have to want to fix themselves, and me caring, living and fretting about them doesn’t solve it. They have to want to change," Kim confessed, illustrating her evolved perspective on helping loved ones through their struggles.
However, Kim initially felt responsible for her brother's personal struggles. Chris had been battling alcoholism, and Kim admitted that she once harbored "magical thinking" that she could alleviate his pain. It was a friend's poignant description of alcoholism—"Alcohol is a mistress that gets you alone and then kills you"—that provided her with a sense of "clarity."
She voiced relief that her father had not lived to witness his son's struggle. "I’m just glad my father wasn’t alive to experience it. As tough as he was, I don’t think he could have taken it," she shared.
In a touching tribute to her late brother, the Mannequin actress marked what would've been his 59th birthday in January 2022.
Sharing a throwback photo of the two siblings leaning on each other on Instagram, she wrote: "Happy Birthday, sweet ‘Topher.’ We miss you today and every day. RIPx." She concluded her tribute with the poignant hashtag #suicideprevention.
After Sarah Jessica shared her condolences following the death of Kim's brother, the Samantha Jones actress wrote: "My Mom asked me today, 'When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?' Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven't already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I'm writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."
This was where the alleged feud between the two stars began, which was swiftly denied by Sarah at the time. Speaking to Vulture, Sarah Jessica explained: "I'd just like to remind everybody that there was no catfight. I have never uttered an unkind, unsupportive, unfriendly word, so I would love to redefine it." She continued: "I've always held Kim's work in high regard and always appreciative of her contributions. If she chooses not to do the third movie, there's not a lot I can do to change her mind and we must respect it. That's the only thing I've ever said about it, you know?"
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