Before there was Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a teenage girl in the Connecticut suburbs on The Carrie Diaries.
After The CW began airing a prequel about Sarah Jessica Parker’s fashion icon in 2013, fans began to notice several liberties being taken about Carrie’s upbringing.
“I had to tell a version of the story I thought I could write to for not just one episode but for many,” showrunner Amy B. Harris, who previously served as a producer on the OG series, told The Hollywood Reporter in January 2013. “We debated a lot about whether or not to include anything about Carrie’s family backstory in [Sex and the City] and we mentioned once [on SATC] that the father had left. It didn’t feel like the right version to me, because the story felt more complicated than a parent leaving, and Candace [Bushnell’s] version [with Carrie’s mom dying] in the book really spoke to me, the idea that she has a good relationship with her father, which is why she’s looking for a certain type of man.”
The Carrie Diaries, which was canceled in 2014 after two seasons, starred AnnaSophia Robb as the title character alongside Austin Butler, Katie Findlay, Brendan Dooling, Ellen Wong, Matt Letscher, Freema Agyeman and Stefania LaVie Owen. The dramedy followed Carrie as she balanced her suburban life in high school with her first internship in the city.
However, many fans rewatching Sex and the City or starting the And Just Like That revival have pointed out there are several continuity errors between the shows. Keep reading for the biggest plot discrepancies:
Carrie’s Family
Although Parker’s Carrie once noted on SATC that her father had left her family, that is not the case in The Carrie Diaries. Based on Bushnell’s 2011 prequel novel, The Carrie Diaries introduces attorney Tom Bradshaw in the pilot as a dad struggling to raise daughters Carrie and Dorrit (Owen) after the death of his wife, Grace. SATC does not mention Carrie’s mom or siblings at all.
High School Love
SATC fans will remember Carrie’s high school boyfriend, Jeremy, making a one-off appearance in season 6. However, Carrie had a few different love interests in The Carrie Diaries — and none of them were named Jeremy. Ahead of season 1, Carrie’s former childhood pal Sebastian Kydd (Butler, long before he played Elvis) had moved away from Castlebury, Connecticut, with his family. They moved back during his junior year and he reconnected with Robb’s Carrie. After a will-they-or-won’t-they story line, they eventually got together before she chose her Interview career over their high school romance. Carrie later dated George Silver (Richard Kohnke), who was a family friend, and wunderkind playwright Adam Weaver (Chris Wood).
Losing Her Virginity
While SATC’s Carrie described her first time as a casual hookup in a locker room, the prequel revealed she actually wanted it to be a meaningful experience. Robb’s Carrie eventually had sex for the first time with Weaver in his NYC apartment during season 2, which kickstarted her writing about her intimate life.
Introducing Samantha
Samantha was the first SATC pal to arrive in The Carrie Diaries when Lindsay Gort stepped into her stilettos during season 2. Samantha was introduced as the cousin of Carrie’s school rival, Donna (Chloe Bridges). Gort’s Samantha was working as a bouncer at a dive bar when she met Carrie and Walt (Dooling) during their summer in the city. According to the Sex and the City 2 movie in 2010, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) was bartending at CBGB’s, a legendary music venue in the city, when they met.
Meeting Her ‘Sex and the City’ Besties
Sex and the City 2 also explained that Carrie met Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) before Samantha, which erases the continuity of The Carrie Diaries season 2 since fans never met Charlotte and Miranda as teens. According to Bushnell’s second Carrie Diaries novel, Carrie met Charlotte on a train as Carrie was leaving NYC after her summer adventure. Charlotte even proclaimed that she was moving to town in order to meet her future husband. In the book, Carrie met Miranda when the then-aspiring lawyer was protesting outside Saks Fifth Avenue in the city. The movie changed their meeting to a Bloomingdales, where Miranda was crying in a fitting room instead of crusading for justice outside.
Finding a Friend in Stanford
SATC made it known that Carrie and Stanford (Willie Garson) had been ride-or-dies since the 1980s (the time period of which The Carrie Diaries was set) back at a time when Carrie rode the subway and wore Candie’s. The Carrie Diaries, however, never showed Stanford but did establish he was the roommate of Carrie’s Interview magazine coworker Bennett (Jake Robinson), and that he worked as a club promoter. According to Bennett, Stanford was rarely home in their shared abode.
Moving to the Big Apple
Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) and Parker’s Carrie revealed in And Just Like That season 2 that she first moved to the city at the age of 21. But, per The Carrie Diaries, she was 16 when she first spent time in the city as an intern and 17 when she lived there for an extended period.
