Entertainment

Sex And The City: Carrie & Mr. Big's Relationship Timeline

Nairavoice · Oct 29, 2026 · 15 min read

The relationship between Carrie Bradshaw and John “Mr. Big” Preston was a rollercoaster that lasted throughout Sex and the City and into the polarizing 2021 revival, And Just Like That — though it had an incredibly tragic ending. Carrie and Mr. Big met in the Sex and the City pilot and developed an instant attraction. The meeting led to a whirlwind romance that survived Carrie being engaged to someone else and Mr. Big moving to the West Coast.

Through breakups and new relationships, Carrie and Big couldn’t quit each other. There were times when they were a toxic couple, but the longer Sex and the City continued, the more they matured into each other’s perfect partners.

The first feature film saw them tying the knot, with the Sex and the City characters still happily married by the time of 2021’s And Just Like That. Though all good things come to an end, as Carrie discovers in the revival, her time with her soulmate was just fabulous.

Season 1 – The Introduction Of Mr. Big

In the Sex and the City pilot, Mr. Big is introduced when he and Carrie literally bump into each other on the sidewalk. Carrie drops her purse, and Big helps her pick up her things — including a handful of condoms. He watches her curiously as she walks away. From there, the two continue to run into each other through the first few episodes of Sex and the City season 1, until they finally formally introduce themselves and develop a flirtatious romance.

Episode 4 “Valley Of The Twenty-Something Guys”

Carrie and Big attempt to meet up for dinner, but he brings a male friend

Carrie and Big go on their first official date and sleep together for the first time

Big continues to date other women, but Carrie wants a monogamous relationship

Carrie finds out Big has previously been married and had a threesome

Carrie feels comfortable enough to sleep over at Big’s apartment, but the two don’t always have sex

Episode 12 “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”

Big introduces Carrie to his mother as his friend, and Carrie breaks up with him

They soon start dating, and Carrie falls head over heels in love with Big. She starts sleeping at Big’s apartment, wants a monogamous relationship with him, and even wants to get serious when she meets his mother. She and Big, however, aren’t on the same page in the first season. When she finds out he’s dating other women and doesn’t see her as “the one” quite yet, she ends things in the season 1 finale. That episode, “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful,” is the first time the Carrie and Big saga ends. She asks Big to say she’s “the one,” and he can’t because he’s unwilling to commit, so Carrie walks away in tears.

Season 2 – Carrie & Big 2.0 And The Natasha Era

Though Carrie dumped Big in season 1, she never fully got over him. So, when she first sees him after their breakup in the Sex and the City season 2 premiere, time stood still for her, and it very quickly led to them trying to have a relationship again.

Unfortunately, many of the same problems plague them, as Big doesn’t want any of Carrie’s belongings in his apartment, and doesn’t even stay for a speech she makes when he attends a wedding as her date. They still try to make things work.

Episode 1 “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”

Carrie bumps into Big and isn’t over their breakup

Episode 5 “Four Women And A Funeral”

Carrie calls Big six months after their breakup

Big accompanies Carrie to a wedding but disappoints her

Episode 9 “Old Dogs, New Dicks”

Big spends the night at Carrie’s apartment for the first time

Episode 12 “La Douleur Exquise!”

Big and Carrie break up when he reveals he’s moving to Paris for six months

Carrie tries to be friends with Big after learning he is engaged to Natasha

However, when Carrie finds out that Big is moving to Paris for work and never mentions it or invites her to come along, she has second thoughts. She knows they are never going to work as a couple, since she is more invested in the relationship than he is. The two break up once more, and she starts dating other people. Months later, Carrie runs into Big at a party in the Hamptons. Not only is she shocked that he’s back in New York and didn’t tell her, but she’s stunned to find out he is engaged to a much younger woman named Natasha.

Season 3 – An Affair To Remember

In Sex and the City season 3, Carrie meets Aidan Shaw, and they fall deeply in love. Though Carrie has moved on from Mr. Big, she keeps bumping into him around the city. The two come face to face at a furniture expo where Natasha is ironically interested in Aidan’s work. After a few drinks, Big tells Carrie that he and Natasha aren’t happy, and he wants “out.”

Episode 11 “Running With Scissors”

Natasha catches Carrie and Big together

Episode 12 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Carrie confesses the affair to Aidan

Big and Carrie cross paths again, falling into the Central Park Pond

Carrie and Big begin an affair, and her voiceover narration implies that the two just don’t know how to stay away from one another when they’re in the same city. Carrie repeatedly says they need to be done, but they don’t stop seeing each other in secret. They can’t seem to help themselves, but when Natasha finds Carrie in her and Big’s apartment, the affair ends. Soon after, Carrie tells Aidan, and they break up. Both single in the city, Carrie and Big end the season as close friends.

Season 4: The End Of An Era

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In Sex and the City season 4, Carrie and Aidan give their relationship another try. However, when Aidan learns that Carrie is still friends with Big (despite Samantha’s previous warning to him), it causes problems. Tension between Aidan and Big comes to a head when Big shows up at Aidan’s cabin to talk to Carrie. Even though Carrie and Aidan actually get engaged, he calls it off because he knows she’ll never be able to commit to him.

Episode 10 “Belles of the Balls”

Big gets dumped and reaches out to Carrie

Aidan proposes to Carrie, but she has doubts because of Big

Aidan and Carrie officially break up, but Carrie doesn’t take Big’s loan to pay for her apartment

One of Carrie’s biggest growing pains in Sex and the City season 4 doesn’t involve romance, but finances. Her apartment becomes a co-op while she and Aidan are still together, so he buys it. However, when they break up, Carrie has to pay Aidan back for the mortgage or risk losing the apartment altogether, a situation complicated by the fact that she has almost no savings. Big offers her a loan, but she eventually tears up the check after talking with her friends, and Charlotte ends up offering Carrie her wedding ring to provide her with a down payment instead.

Meanwhile, Carrie and Big still remain friends until she shockingly finds out that he is moving to California. Without Big in New York to keep Carrie on her toes, it’s the end of an era.

Season 5: A One-Night Stand In California

Mr. Big only appears in one episode of Sex and the City season 5: episode 7, “The Big Journey”. This is one of the slowest seasons for Big and Carrie’s relationship, but it has a significant moment. When she releases her first book and goes to California as part of her book tour, she plans on seeing (and sleeping with) Big. Carrie spends much of the season trying to connect with other men — whether physically or emotionally — and she just cannot seem to find anyone that holds her interest for long.

In California, Big confesses how sorry he is for their relationship. He read Carrie’s book and realized how much turmoil he put her through, and isn’t sure if he should sleep with her because he didn’t want to lead her on. The two eventually do go to bed together and say their goodbyes before going back to their respective lives on different coasts. If the series hadn’t continued, it would have been closure for their relationship.

Season 6 – Carrie & Big End The Series Together

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In Sex and the City season 6, Carrie and Big are still connected via phone conversations and see each other yet again when Big is in town for heart surgery. Big’s surgery scares both of them and makes him realize that he could see a future with Carrie. Carrie doesn’t take him seriously and continues dating other men until she meets Aleksandr Petrovsky. Carrie falls in love with Petrovsky, so she starts ignoring Big’s calls because she knows he’ll distract her from her happiness.

Carrie and Big reunite in season 6, episode 11, “The Domino Effect,” after her breakup with Berger. While she nurses him through his recovery, he finally seems ready to commit, but his feelings shift once he feels better, and Carrie decides they’re better as friends.

Episode 3 “The Perfect Present”

Big calls Carrie out of the blue while she’s dating Berger

Carrie finds out Big is back in town getting heart surgery, and worries about him

Big starts calling Carrie again while she dates Aleksandr, but she deletes his messages

Episode 19 “An American Girl In Paris: Part One”

Carrie rejects Big’s offer to talk in person and moves to Paris with Aleksandr, so Big goes to her friends for advice

Episode 20 “An American Girl In Paris: Part Two”

Big sets out to talk to Carrie in Paris, and the two return to New York as a couple again

Carrie agrees to move to Paris with Petrovsky, but when Big tries to stop her because he’s in love with her, Carrie snaps. She swears him off and moves anyway. Knowing he has to win her back, Big travels to Paris and tracks her down. He tells Carrie she is “the one,” and it makes for one of Sex and the City‘s most romantic scenes.

Big finds her in her hotel lobby, hands her the namesake necklace and says, “Carrie, you’re the one,” a callback to season 1, when she asked him to say those exact words. Carrie returns to New York with him, and the episode reveals that Big’s real name is John.

Sex & The City: The Movie – Carrie & Big Get Married

In the first Sex and the City movie, which premiered in 2008, Big and Carrie are seemingly living out that happily ever after in New York. While apartment-hunting for a place they could call their own, Carrie begins to wonder about her assets when he buys a stunning penthouse for them. This conversation leads to Big proposing and Carrie’s plan for a small, intimate wedding growing bigger and bigger.

On the day of the wedding, Big gets cold feet and calls it off. It seemed like he was still afraid to commit, just like he was in the television series, but he eventually attempts to redeem himself. Heartbroken, Carrie spends the remainder of the movie trying to get her life back in order until she realizes Big has been trying to win her back all along. Despite all the hurt, Carrie and Big get back together and get married at New York City Hall.

Carrie first sets her sights on the New York Public Library for the wedding because it houses “all of the great love stories.” In the film’s final moments, she discovers he’s been writing her apology emails every day, and at their City Hall ceremony she wears the vintage suit she wanted from the start.

Sex & The City 2 – Carrie & Big’s Marriage Faces A Test

Two years after the first movie, Sex and the City 2 arrived in 2010. Now that Carrie and Big’s wedding was over and done with, viewers saw what married life was like for them. While Big is content with their small life at home, Carrie misses hitting the streets of New York and going to parties. The two decide to spend two days a week apart as a way to decompress from each other.

The bulk of the movie, however, involves Carrie and her friends going on a very big trip to Abu Dhabi with the girls. There, she bumps into Aidan and kisses him after dinner. It makes sense that Aidan would be the one to cause doubt in their marriage since he was the only other man Carrie considered spending the rest of her life with. Big is devastated by the news, but manages to get past it, gifting Carrie a black diamond as a symbol of their commitment to each other, and the two are in a better place.

And Just Like That – Carrie Becomes A Widow

The Sex and the City revival series, And Just Like That, arrived in 2021, over a decade after the second movie. The series picks up with Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda years later, leaving Samantha out of the storylines almost completely. While there were some major relationship updates, Carrie and Big’s relationship didn’t progress in the way many expected.

Given that so much time had passed, viewers had expected that And Just Like That would show Carrie and Big navigating the trials and tribulations of keeping the passion alive later in a marriage. Sadly, while their romance was in a stronger place than ever, Big died in the And Just Like That pilot episode from a heart attack. His surgery in the Sex and the City series years earlier may have even foreshadowed the possibility, making Carrie’s worry well-founded. From there on, Carrie grieved his loss and focused on her life as an independent widow.

Was There Someone Better Than Big For Carrie?

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Much like Ross and Rachel in Friends, Robin and Ted in How I Met Your Mother, and Penny and Leonard in The Big Bang Theory, the on-again, off-again nature of Carrie and Big’s relationship across Sex and the City‘s six seasons led many viewers to correctly presume they would end up together.

However, even though Carrie and Big always felt destined to end up together eventually, there are still many Sex and the City fans who don’t feel he was the best choice of all her boyfriends on the show.

While every single one of Carrie’s boyfriends has their supporters who feel they were who she should have chosen over Mr. Big, the biggest contender is Aidan Shaw. The conscientious furniture designer may have been the antithesis of Carrie’s high-flying New York aspirations, but this is what made Aidan so endearing to many viewers. He proved time and time again that he had an infinite amount of patience for Carrie, recognizing throughout their relationship that she simply needed time to figure out what it was she actually wanted from life.

Few of Carrie’s exes would have been able to forgive her cheating on them with Mr. Big, but Aidan managed to heal from this wound. The pair were even engaged during season 4. While it ultimately wasn’t meant to be, there are many Sex and the City fans who still adamantly believe that the pair should have ended up together, and that Aidan was a far better choice for Carrie than Big.

When Carrie and Aidan reconnect in And Just Like That, even Ms. Bradshaw herself questions whether she picked the right guy. She eventually gets back together with Aidan for a second time, though their relationship isn’t without its complications, as he is the divorced father of two boys, and he has his own life in Virginia.

Though Carrie is determined to make things work, it turns out not to be the long distance, but Aidan’s ultimate lack of trust in her that leads to their final breakup. Before the And Just Like That series finale, Carrie has a brief dalliance with a handsome British writer living in the downstairs apartment of her new house, but the show’s final episode sees her not only come to terms with potentially spending the rest of her life alone, but also embracing it. After all, as Sex and the City proved, she already had a romance for the ages.

Will Carrie Bradshaw Return After And Just Like That?

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Candace Bushnell said at the Cliveden Literary Festival that she believes in a continuation with Sarah Jessica Parker, and that she isn’t giving up hope that Parker could do another film or something similar as Carrie, according to People.

Parker said at the Golden Eve gala in Beverly Hills on January 6 that she’s up for reprising Carrie Bradshaw, but only working with creator Michael Patrick King. “The only thing that really matters is what excites Michael Patrick King,” she told Variety. “And right now he’s just not thinking about that.” Kristin Davis also thinks the franchise has one last chapter in store. On her podcast Are You a Charlotte?, she cited the 2023 rom-com Book Club: The Next Chapter, in which four friends travel to Italy together, and pitched a trip to Italy of their own, People reported.