About the Real Person Who Inspired Mr. Big on ‘Sex and the City’

The real Mr. Big would like a word.

In the HBO series “Sex and the City,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) has an on-again, off-again relationship with an elusive businessman nicknamed Mr. Big, played by Chris Noth.

Famously, the character was pulled from the pages of “Sex and the City” creator Candace Bushnell’s real life. Bushnell first introduced Big in her column for The New York Observer, a thinly veiled portrait of her experiences in New York City. In the years since, the author hasn’t shied away from admitting that Big was, at least in part, based on ‘90s media executive Ronald Galotti.

This month, Galotti opened up about Bushnell’s column and his life now in an interview with the New York Times.

Both Bushnell and Galotti have briefly touched on their respective sides of their relationship. Read on for more about their relationship and what they’ve said.

Who is Ronald Galotti?

Galotti is a former publishing executive who served as a corporate vice president at Condé Nast. He contributed to shaping Vanity Fair and Vogue in the ‘90s and was largely considered at the time to be part of Manhattan’s media elite.

Since 1996, he has been married to his wife, Lisa Galotti. According to the New York Times profile, Galotti has left the city for Vermont.

About Galotti and Bushnell’s relationship

Bushnell and Galotti didn’t exactly have Carrie and Big meet-cute that launched six seasons of romance in “Sex and the City.”

Carrie and Big meet on a NYC sidewalk after a collision leads to her unleashing condoms from her purse.

Bushnell and Galotti, however, met in 1995 at a fashion show, according to a 2025 profile on Galotti in The New York Times.

Both were entering new territory. Galotti had just split from his second wife, and Bushnell was launching her now-famous column, “Sex & The City.”

A 2003 issue of More Magazine notes that the two dated for a year and a half. Galotti broke up with Bushnell and married Lisa Galotti soon after.

Lisa Galotti shared an anecdote in New York Magazine that reflected on how quickly their relationship developed.

“The first time we come out to the Hamptons together,” Lisa Galotti explained at the time. “We make mad passionate love. And then he says to me, ‘You know those ten-mile runs you go on? Well, you should go on one now,’ and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he said, ‘My old girlfriend’s coming over to pick up her clothes.’ ”

What has Bushnell said about Galotti?

Bushnell captured their dynamic from her perspective in her column — like this one, titled “Mr. Big Wants to Be With Someone ‘Normal.’”

“I just want to be with someone normal,” he said. “I just want to have a normal life.”

“Excuse me,” she said.

“You’re a little crazy,” he said. “You’re too old to act the way you do. You’ve got to grow up. You’ve got take care of yourself. I’m afraid for you. You can’t think that people are going to take care of you all the time.”

Bushnell told New York Magazine the origin of her nickname for him. “He was one of those New York guys with a big personality —you just notice him as soon as he walks in the room,” Bushnell said of Galotti. “I called him Mr. Big because he was like a big man on campus.”

She also said he was “much more of a well-rounded person” than many believed him to be at the time. “He cooks, he gardens. In some ways, he’d prefer to be at home to going out on the town,” she said.

Bushnell told More Magazine in 2003 that Galotti never expressed resentment over having their private life appear in her column: “He always said, ‘Cute, baby, cute,’” she said.

She also called Galotti “fantastic” and said she was “crazy about him” back in their dating days.

Reflecting on the aftermath of their breakup, she recalled, “I think I lost eight pounds,” she said. “But you do realize in life that people want different things in relationships. And that’s OK.”

For the 2025 profile of Galotti in the New York Times, Bushnell said, “He’s a really nice guy, that’s the truth.”

What Galotti has said about Bushnell

Galotti touched on his relationship with Bushnell in his 2025 New York Times interview.

“I can’t help that,” Galotti told the New York Times. “There’s nothing worse than when you love me and I don’t love you.”

“She was a great girl,” he also told the newspaper. “We had a great time, and there was no future attached to it. And there was never intended to be. I never was deceptive. I never said I loved her.”

He plays up his association with “Sex and the City” — he proudly has a sign called “Big’s Ranch” displayed at his home.