Actor John Corbett may be best known for playing a universally adored love interest who famously did not get married. As Aiden Shaw on the original Sex and the City, his fraught relationship with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) went down in flames after he discovered that she was cheating on him with Big (Chris Noth) and later couldn’t commit to actually marrying him. But offscreen, Corbett has been blissfully partnered with Bo Derek, an icon in her own right, for almost 20 years — and they just revealed that they were secretly married last year.
Corbett spilled the beans on a recent taping of CBS’ The Talk podcast. “Around Christmastime, we got married. Bo and I got married!” he told co-host Jerry O’Connell, noting that he forgot to tell him the news during a previous conversation. O’Connell said that he noticed Corbett was wearing a wedding band, but didn’t want to broach the subject “on live television.” A smart move on O’Connell’s part, because Corbett said that he and Bo “are pretty private people” and didn’t make a public announcement until now. Still, “all our friends and family knew,” he said, and the couple specifically chose to get married in 2020 because they “didn’t want it to be that [year] that everyone looks back on and hated. We thought, ‘well, let’s get one nice thing out of it,’” a sentiment everyone who survived 2020 can understand. He also flashed his ring at the camera — it’s a plain platinum band without any bells and whistles; we can imagine Aiden sporting such a ring as well.
We also know that Corbett will be reprising his role as Aiden on ...And Just Like That, the upcoming SATC sequel series. Last time we saw Aiden, he’d gotten married to a woman named Kathy after licking his wounds from Carrie, and had three children. Carrie and Aiden serendipitously meet in Abu Dhabi, where they share a passionate, illicit kiss before he disappears back into the night. It will be fascinating to see how, years later, Carrie and Aiden approach their relationship. Will they finally get married, or realize that their ships have sailed? At least Corbett’s personal life doesn’t mirror Aiden’s mixed-up emotions.