‘Sex and the City’ Star Willie Garson Hid Cancer Battle From Everybody but One Co-Star

Sex and the City star Willie Garson passed away in September at the age of 57 after battling cancer. During interviews for the HBO Max revival And Just Like That, star Cynthia Nixon revealed that Garson kept his diagnosis secret from all of his castmates except for Sarah Jessica Parker early on. “The death of Wille Garson was obviously, completely unlooked for, unknown,” Nixon explained.

“Sarah Jessica was the only one that knew he was sick when we were filming until things became undeniable and then we were told. Thankfully we were able to shoot with him not just before he was sick but after so it could be something we could discuss and listen to him about,” Nixon continued. “I know that was very important for us and I think it was something that was important to him, too—not to be hiding that from us anymore.”

“As Charlotte [Kristin Davis] says, ‘Death is a part of life,’ but it does remind us of how precious our loved ones are to us,” Nixon concluded. Parker addressed Garson’s passing on Instagram, calling It “unbearable.”

While other members of the Sex and the City cast were quick to pay tribute to Garson, Parker waited a few days to gather her thoughts. “Sometimes silence is a statement. Of the gravity. The anguish. The magnitude of the loss of a 30 + year friendship,” Parker wrote. “A real friendship that allowed for secrets, adventure, a shared professional family, truth, concerts, road trips, meals, late-night phone calls, a mutual devotion to parenthood and all the heartaches and joy that accompany, triumphs, disappointments, fear, rage and years spent on sets (most especially Carrie’s apartment) and laughing late into the night as both Stanford and Carrie and Willie and SJ.”

Parker told Garson she will “miss everything about you” and plans to replay their last moments together. “I will re-read every text from your final days and put to pen our last calls,” Parker continued. “Your absence [is] a crater that I will fill with [the] blessing of these memories and all the ones that are still in recesses yet to surface.”

“My love and deepest sympathies and condolences to you dear Nathen,” Parker wrote to Garson’s son. “You were and are the light of Willie’s life and his greatest achievement was being your Papa. These were his last words to me. ‘Great bangles all around.’ Yes. Godspeed Willie Garson.”