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Paulina Porizkova says Carrie Bradshaw's grief in 'And Just Like That' resonated with her as a widow

Paulina Porizkova — with late husband Ric Ocasek in 2016 — related to how And Just Like That... addressed grief. (Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)
Paulina Porizkova — with late husband Ric Ocasek in 2016 — related to how And Just Like That... addressed grief. (Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)

Warning: This article contains major And Just Like That... spoilers.

As the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That... ends its 10-episode run, Paulina Porizkova is reflecting on how the depiction of Carrie Bradshaw's grief resonated with her as a fellow widow. The supermodel was separated from Cars rocker Ric Ocasek, her husband of 30 years, when he died in 2019. Like Sarah Jessica Parker's leading lady Carrie, who (spoiler) arrives home at the end of the first episode to find husband Big (Chris Noth) dying, it was Porizkova who first discovered Ocasek dead in the New York City home they shared with their two sons.

Porizkova, who has been candid about her grief, mental health and the complex emotions she's experienced since Ocasek's death, took to Instagram on Sunday to share her thoughts on how And Just Like That... handled Carrie's bereavement, admitting to fans that she watched most of the show "through tears. While Carrie is seen processing her loss in various ways throughout the show — cycling through sorrow, numbness and anger and at one point wondering if Big's spirit is trying to communicate with her via her reading lamp — one thing that particularly struck a chord with Porizkova was her tendency, early on, to restlessly walk up and down Manhattan.

"What I found the most devastating was Carrie walking through NYC streets, mindlessly, trying to outwalk her pain," Porizkova wrote, sharing a shot of Parker as Bradshaw from the final episode. "I did the same. Walked for hours in the woods behind our house in the cold.

"My solitude allowed for privacy so I could walk and wail," she continued. "It’s like when your pet hurts and thinks it can outrun its pain. It just desperately dashes from place to place, hoping, believing, that the pain comes from the outside, and the right spot will make it stop.

"We know better. We know where the pain comes from. And yet we try to outrun it. Reason is no match for pain."

Porizkova's post drew comments from other widows who shared how they also related to the show's most somber moments.

The model — soon to be seen on the CBS reality show Beyond the Edgepreviously praised Parker, 56, for embracing her age.

“I’ve been seeing photos of Sarah Jessica Parker in the media, and every time I think ‘oh thank you thank you!’" she wrote in a November Instagram post. "Someone who is my age who looks like me. I see my lines and droops and silver roots mirrored, and I love it.”

She added that Parker — who has called out the "misogynist chatter" about reprising her most famous role in her 50s — "makes me feel like I’m not a freak for aging."

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