Inside the toxic feud that killed 'Sex and the City'

Rumours about rifts between the stars of HBO's Sex and the City have been circling for years but the actresses always managed to keep up appearances.

Until now, that is.

The tragic death of Kim Cattrall's brother last week has shed light on what really went on behind the scenes of the famous show and confirmed the long-held suspicion by many that Samantha and Carrie were most definitely not friends off the screen.

Sarah-Jessic Parker commented on Cattrall's post about the loss of her brother: "Dearest Kim, my love and condolences to you and yours and Godspeed to your beloved brother. Xx."

It seemed like a nice, innocent comment but it left Cattrall furious.

The actress, who played the fierce Samantha Jones character, branded the former co-star "cruel" and said she was "exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona".

She also included a link to a New York Post story about the "mean girls" culture of Sex and the City, in what looked like an endosement of what the article portrayed.

The article highlights the rift between Parker and Cattrall as Parker announced there would not be another Sex and the City movie.

Another article, in the Daily Mail, blamed Cattrall for refusing to sign up for another film to add to the franchise.

Those two articles seem to open the floodgates with a lot more press recently making Cattrall the villain over the death of the Sex and the City franchise.

"Same s**t, different day," a friend of Cattrall's told a New York Post reporter this week.

Except this time it was a bit different because, instead of letting rumours be rumours, Cattrall booked an interview with Piers Morgan and opened up about it all.

"The answer was always no," said Cattrall. "I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects. To be thought of as some kind of diva is ridiculous."

She told Morgan that she had no idea when she last spoke to her co-stars. She also said no one had approached her when the reports began circulating about her holding up the film.

"Nobody ever picks up the phone and tries to contact you and say, 'How you doing?' That would have been the way to handle it," she added. "This is, it feels like, a toxic relationship."

Tensions between the two reportedly started years ago when Parker didn't like the attention Cattrall was getting. Parker felt she was the star of the show but, somehow, Samantha Jones' character was becoming a lot more iconic than expected.

With the other girls taking Parker's side, Cattrall is said to have felt left out for years. She reluctanctly signed up for the first two movies but always refused to do a third one.

Cattrall, who's now 61, told Piers Morgan she's not up for making sacrifices for her career anymore.

"This is what my 60s are about: They're about me making decisions for me. Not my career, for me. And that feels frickin' fantastic."

NZ Herald.