In HBO’s beloved 1998 dramedy Sex and the City, Miranda Hobbes is a formidable career woman with her fair share of man troubles. For the fictional lawyer’s real-life counterpart Cynthia Nixon, however, that narrative could not be further from the truth; the Emmy winner, 55, has been in a loving marriage with Christine Marinoni for nine years.
Cynthia and Christine — who got engaged at a rally to support same-sex marriage in New York in 2009, when it was not yet legal — married in May 2012 after the city passed the Marriage Equality Act. And while nine years is an impressive feat in Hollywood, Cynthia and Christine have been together for even longer, beginning a relationship in 2004.
So, who is the Sex and the City star’s wife? Learn more about Christine below.
Who is Christine Marinoni?
Cynthia is not the only one with an impressive career: Christine is a prominent LGBTQ+ rights and education activist who previously worked for New York’s Department of Education as a special adviser for community partnerships. After four years of working under the Bill de Blasio administration, Christine resigned from the job in 2018 prior to Cynthia’s run for governor. (She was ultimately defeated by Andrew Cuomo.) A daughter of teachers, Christine helped establish Alliance for Quality Education, a New York-based non-profit working to ensure high-quality public education for students, in 2002.
How did Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni meet?
When did Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni start dating?
Following her separation from Danny, Cynthia began dating Christine in 2004. It was her first relationship with a woman. “I had never dated a woman before or even kissed a woman or anything,” Cynthia told The Radio Times in 2017. “So when we started seeing each other, Christine kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for me to panic about what this would mean — to my career or to myself — as if somehow I just hadn’t noticed that she was a woman; and then she met my mother and that was when she stopped worrying about it.”
Cynthia came out in late 2004 amid speculation of her dating life. She previously told The Advocate that her then-publicist discouraged her from coming out. “He just kept saying, ‘It’s your life, and it’s private, and that’s it,” she recounted. “And we kept asking, ‘That’s the whole thing? We never move past that? We’re at the playground with the kids, and pictures are taken of us, and we say, ‘No, she’s my friend?’” Her manager then introduced her to Kelly Bush, an openly-gay publicist, who suggested she confirm the rumors. “It was so fantastic,” Cynthia said.
When did Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni marry?
Cynthia and Christine got married in New York on May 27, 2012. The nuptials came after the two got engaged at a rally to support same-sex marriage in the city in 2009, when it was not yet legal. The Sex and the City star’s rep confirmed the news to PEOPLE, revealing that the actress wore a custom Carolina Herrera wedding dress for the big day.
Do Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni have children?
In February 2011, Christine gave birth to Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni, 10, her first child with Cynthia, whose rep confirmed the baby’s arrival in a statement that read: “Christine and baby are doing great.” Following his arrival, Christine took time away from work to be a stay-at-home mom, where she also raised her stepchildren. “I couldn’t actually envision being happily married with kids,” Christine told The New York Times in 2018.
She continued, “I thought, I’m never going to get that. I think it’s amazing that I got that. It’s huge.” In her interview with The Advocate, Cynthia said Samuel and Charlie adapted quickly to the new family unit, revealing that they would refer to her as “mommy” and Christine as “ma.” She said, “Maybe I’m just lucky, but I feel like Christine is so amazing with our kids because they’re our kids. I feel like falling in love with her is part of being amazed at how she makes our family so much better.”