In an NZ exclusive, the US actor talks to Viva about life since And Just Like That ended.
They say never meet your heroes because they’ll disappoint you. But in this case, I’m the disappointment – turning up to a Zoom interview with wet hair and half my makeup on
because I thought it was audio only.
But as the call connects, there is Sarah Jessica Parker, filling my laptop screen with her trademark blonde curls and a face that’s been part of my viewing life for nearly 30 years.
Thank goodness I’d changed out of my dressing gown.
It’s 7.30am for me and 3.30pm for Parker, talking to Viva from a study in her New York home. The walls are lined with shelves of colourful-spined books and artworks, and the lighting is excellent.
I’ve got my camera angle all wrong and can’t believe I’ve turned up to interview SARAH. JESSICA. PARKER. looking like I’ve just been swimming.
She is gracious, telling me not to worry, she hasn’t done her hair either (it looks amazing) and has no makeup on (she’s glowing).
Sarah Jessica Parker attends the Fendi Couture Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Show at Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in July. Photo / Getty Images
Parker is dialling in to discuss her latest wine collaboration with Invivo, her fifth with the New Zealand winery since their partnership began in 2018. She’s the brand’s second celebrity partner, with Graham Norton enjoying international success with his range of six wines, three gins and one vodka.
Despite the cachet and global profile Parker’s partnership brings to Invivo, she says her wines are not “a celebrity brand”.
“It’s a serious wine business. We take the work really seriously. We care a lot about producing a really quality bottle of wine.”
The character she’s best known for, Carrie Bradshaw, launched hundreds of trends, but Parker’s “not well-versed” in them.
So the viral “moment” of adding slices of jalapeno to a glass of sauvignon blanc passed her by.
But in last year’s Northern Hemisphere summer, it was everywhere. Texas TikTok creator Grace Ramadan told the NY Times it was her “drink of the summer because it was so easy”, and tens of millions of posts and hashtags like “spicysauvyb” agreed.
“Our distributor saw something happening and came to [me and Invivo co-founders Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron] and talked about the idea,” Parker says.
“I just thought it was a great idea. I was like, yeah, that actually makes really good sense.”
Sarah Jessica Parker, centre, with Invivo co-founders Rob Cameron and Tim Lightbourne.
According to wine writers, the combination works because jalapenos and wine grapes contain a chemical called pyrazine, which has zesty and herbaceous notes. Pyrazines have been dialled back in NZ savs in recent years, so adding jalapeno adds a zingy kick.
“As always, when you’re producing wine, the great challenge is how do we get there in a way that’s real,” Parker says. “We’re not wanting any artificial flavours. We’re not wanting to do a less than fantastic sauvignon that will marry well with this idea.”
She worked with Cameron, Invivo’s winemaker, and Lightbourne, the brand’s director, to come up with a blend they were happy with.
Launched in the US this year, the Invivo X Sarah Jessica Parker Spicy Jalapeno Sauvignon Blanc is now on sale in New Zealand. And whatever your initial wine-purist reaction may be, reviews have been largely positive.
“It’s been a massive success, which we’re thrilled about,” Parker says. “[We’re] relieved because, just because we like something doesn’t mean it’s going to translate … wine is a very personal experience, we cannot legislate or dictate how people are going to respond to it. So it’s been just lovely.”
Lightbourne says the wine is “approachable rather than over the top”, with a “subtle spicy kick”.
Early retail signs are good, he says, with global retailers adding it to their catalogues.
“That just doesn’t normally happen this fast, as wine is typically a slow-moving world.”
Parker has worked with Invivo since 2018 but her love of wine stretches back much further. Wine didn’t play an important role in her household growing up – her mother didn’t drink at all – but she remembers a bottle of Ernest & Julio Gallo being served at her parents’ potluck dinner parties.
“It was only when I started to travel as a young adult that I started to really understand wine – not in the way winemakers understood it, but that there was something really wonderful about travelling and being in local spots and having local wine in Europe and, just really enjoying the experience.”
Travel is something she continues to enjoy but, even with her Invivo connections, she is yet to visit New Zealand.
“I haven’t been yet. It’s crazy… it’s not like there haven’t been wonderful offers from Tim and Rob; we’ve had some wonderful opportunities, but because of work and children, the timing was never right.”
She promises she’ll get here soon – she wants to see our nature, our hills, our cities, our seas – but life is still incredibly busy. Since filming wrapped on Sex and the City spinoff series And Just Like That in October 2024, Parker was a judge for the 2025 Booker prize, reading 153 books in a year.
She’s now filming Hocus Pocus 3, and in pre-production for a sequel to her 2005 movie The Family Stone.
Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw during filming of And Just Like That.
But since wrapping AJLT after three seasons, she’s enjoying having more time for simple things: seeing friends, going to the supermarket, doing laundry, being a parent.
She’s 61 and says she can picture a time when she retires from acting but thinks she’ll always want to do things that feel “new or challenging or frustrating or exciting”.
“I love collaborating. I love working with people that are smarter than me, [who] I can learn from. And so, retirement really, to me, just sounds like more liberty, which I’m excited about.”
As well as her work with Invivo, she is the founder of SJP Lit, a literary imprint of publisher Zando, and works with brands including Tanqueray gin, Astrea London luxury goods and Arezzo footwear.
Sarah Jessica Parker has launched her new collaboration with Invivo wines – Invivo X Sarah Jessica Parker Spicy Jalapeno Sauvignon Blanc.
Lightbourne says she’s heavily involved in the Invivo business and has been from the start.
She created the signature “X” label by dipping her little finger into a small pot of paint and painting it on the first concept bottles. She is there for the blending process, tasting the latest harvests with the team, and has final sign-off on new additions to the X, SJP range.
“With the Spicy Jalapeno Sauvignon Blanc, we went back and forth for a while, tasting and adjusting, until the heat felt exactly right, not too much, not too little,” Lightbourne says.
Parker also travels with Lightbourne and Cameron to buyer meetings around the world.
“It’s a completely different relationship to what we see out there with a celebrity collaboration, where a talent shows up once a year for a trade show or sign bottles,” Lightbourne says. “SJP is genuinely all in.”
Invivo X Sarah Jessica Parker Spicy Jalapeno Sauvignon Blanc, which is available in Auckland at Tacoteca. Photo / Rhiannon Baldock
Parker says she’s looking forward to a time when she can travel more frequently, but admits her husband Matthew Broderick is unlikely to want to retire from acting. What projects she takes on next will depend on “what opportunities are presented to me and how compelling they are”.
She describes herself and Broderick as very present parents. Their son James, 23, just graduated from college and their twin daughters Tabitha and Marion recently turned 17. Mostly keeping her family off her social media accounts, Parker posted a rare tribute to them on their birthday, praising them for being wise, good, happy, funny, “and beautifully finding your way”.
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, pictured in 2022 with their children, Tabitha Hodge Broderick, James Wilkie Broderick and Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick. Photo / Getty Images
She says, like any parent, she worries about them becoming independent adults in a world that is “so much less knowable than it used to be”.
“The world is so different than when I was coming into this moment of my life. Opportunities aren’t really the same. My business isn’t really the same. Most businesses aren’t the same.
“I think I worry about what is out there for them, but I think of that in the larger way too. I think not just about my children, but about everybody’s children and what will our world look like? Will there still be interest in classics degrees and liberal arts degrees and the things that I was really most excited about for my children? Will the written word still have value and what role is artificial intelligence going to play in the opportunities that exist for them, and finding homes and building lives.”
She says she’s not a doom scroller but is “very aware of the world” and its “propulsive nature”. To counter those feelings, she tries to find things to feel hopeful about, although admits she’s never been one for “self-care”.
“I fret, I worry, I have anxiety like everybody else, and hope that I can manage it and see something optimistic and hopeful, and hang my hat on that.”
After such a long and successful career – and one still growing and evolving – what is she most proud of?
“It was a dream of mine to be a working actor and everything else that has happened is something that I wouldn’t have known to think of or want. So I think the proudest is that I’ve been able to work and have choices … and been able to support my family and pay my bills and have a very rich life, in large part because of the work opportunities that I’ve had.
“That’s a lot of work and taking things seriously and being a professional, but also just really loving what I do.”
She says ultimately, however, her proudest achievement is being a parent.
“That doesn’t mean I’m excellent at it or I’m achieving what I want to every day as a parent. Parenting is the most challenging because it’s humans and their feelings and their lives and their choices.
“Every day is a new experience and I hope I’m doing a decent job, but it’s the thing that I am most affected by – the thing that is the most profound experience in my life.”
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