Tatler UK - 10.2019

BYS TA NDE R

C U LT U R E

PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF HAKKASAN

BY THE TIME THEY GET TO

their fifties, something happens to

a  lot of women. It’s what I call

becoming a ‘Suddenly Samantha.’

You may have gotten into a bad mar-

riage, you probably haven’t had sex

for a couple of years and you think,

‘I’m going to do it – I’m going to

have a lot of sex!’ These women want

fun, they want a partner. It’s a kind

of Second Singlehood, a do-over, a

chance to get it right.

I entered my own Second Single-

hood eight years ago, when, the day

after one of those huge freak snow-

storms, my husband asked me for a

divorce. After a couple of years’ hiatus

in my house in the Hamptons, I

decided it was time for me to move

back to the city of my original single-

hood. But when I returned to New

York, I noticed something really sur-

prising. I found myself surrounded

by women, who, like me, had ended

up getting divorced.

Back in the Nineties, when I was

writing Sex and the City, my friends

and I were going out a lot: we had

dates, we were always at dinner,

there was no shortage of potential

partners looking to explore having a

relationship. Sure, we complained

about not finding the ‘perfect guy’,

but back then everything was new

and exciting. We had fun.

Now we all felt like we were going

backwards. None of us thought this

is what my life is going to look like in

my fifties. None of us had any idea

of how to behave in ‘middle age’,

and so suddenly we were acting like

teenagers. You’d think we would

know better. But, it transpires, we

don’t. I just had to write about it. ]

tatler.com October 2019

SINGLE MINDED

Candace Bushnell at Hakkasan

in New York in 2019

Candace Bushnell invented Sex and the City – but, divorced

and middle-aged in Manhattan, could she do it again?

Keep calm &

Carrie on

10-19BYST-CultureCandace.indd 59 09/08/2019 12:50

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