INTERVIEW
Ahead of her debut UK tour, Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City, talks dating, children and her hit creation
'Do I care that I’ve recently turned 65?’ asks Candace Bushnell with a roar of laughter. ‘What an opening question. You sure know how to make a woman feel good!
‘Of course I don’t care! These are just numbers we need when we’re filling in forms. Once you pass 60, age gets kind of arbitrary. Some people are 65 but they carry themselves like they’re 85; some are 75 and carry themselves like they’re 55. It’s completely unpredictable – we all age in different ways.’
As if to back up her theory, author and journalist Bushnell – whose Sex and the City column for the The New York Observer was adapted into the ground-breaking TV series and subsequent movies – references recent tabloid headlines about her dating a 21-year-old and a 91-year-old in the same week. ‘That 91-year-old guy was a perfect example of what I’m talking about,’ she says. ‘Interesting, wonderful sense of humour. The first question I’m asked is, “What about the sex?” People get so heated about sex and, sorry, I just don’t understand it. Some women are done with sex in their fifties. For others, getting older leads to a sexual awakening. Sex is central to some relationships, in others, not so much. After my marriage ended, I didn’t have sex for five years. ‘My point is that you have to do what’s right for you at that particular time. Women – especially young women – are always being questioned about sex. It does not matter! Do the thing that makes you happy.’
One of three sisters who grew up in a middle-class family home in Connecticut, Bushnell migrated to New York at 19, chasing her dream of becoming a writer, and started out being sent on tasks for newspapers and magazines. ‘I think it was Anna Wintour at Vogue who got me to test Botox in the early days,’ she recalls. ‘I still use it – it’s one of the few cosmetic procedures that works.’
Presumably though, looking good post-50 is about more than just Botox? ‘Absolutely. I make sure I get enough sleep, eat well, exercise, give my mind a rest, all that kind of stuff,’ she adds. ‘Personally – and this is purely my opinion – I also think that not having kids has helped. Friends who’ve had kids say that being a mom is a seriously tough, full-time job.
You’re taking them to the doctors, to football, cooking. And you spend most of your time worrying! If I had kids, all I’d think about is, “What kind of planet are we going to leave for them?” My heart would break 20 times a day.
‘I’m not saying that kids haven’t been talked about in the past. I’ve lived with long-term boyfriends and I was married for ten ye
