Any fan of "Sex and the City" knows Carrie Bradshaw lived a, shall we say, unrealistic lifestyle, especially for a woman who writes a single freelance newspaper column and lives in New York. She's got a closet full of designer clothes and $385 shoes, eats every meal in a restaurant, and is a fan of $20 cocktails. She also had a fairly unrealistic New York City apartment, even if it was rent-controlled, that she almost lost and ended up keeping because she bullied her best friend into, essentially, giving her the money.
Now, 15 years after Carrie's questionable life choices, Sex and the City writer Amy Harris has jumped to her defense. "If people were pissed and hated that Carrie did that, I'm OK with that," the writer-producer told CNBC Make It, about the fact that the character accepted her divorced friend's beloved engagement ring as a down payment. "Sarah Jessica and I talked about this: We believe [Carrie] paid [Charlotte] back. It was a loan, not a gift, so she did have to learn to save a little, to not spend everything on shoes and clothes."
To be clear, there wasn't any explicit indication that Carrie paid back her friend, but the lessons were apparently still there. "In my mind, she had to acknowledge all the shit choices she'd made and the fact that she hadn't saved a penny and that was a big mistake, and so she was living with that," Harris said. "Carrie learned a lesson. I do believe she sat down every month and wrote Charlotte a check."
Even so, the Internet has been divided about this whole awkward money exchange for years—and according to Vulture, it was even named the number-one "most messed-up" thing about Sex and the City.
"People are funny about money," said Harris, who went on to explain that even the writers weren't even in agreement that this was the right way to handle the "Carrie needs cash" situation. "The biggest fight we ever got into in the writers' room was about the money; that was a very big debate. Money is a tricky, complicated thing. Carrie spent it well on things she enjoyed, and luckily it all worked out well for her–I love happy endings."
The real happy ending? Carrie got to keep her money right where she could see it: hanging in her closet.
