Kristen Johnston Opens Up About Addiction During ‘Sex and the City’ Appearance

Actress Kristen Johnston has revealed that she was struggling with addiction when she filmed her memorable guest appearance on Sex and the City.

Johnston played Lexi Featherston in the sixth season of the series. The character, an aging party girl, famously declares, “New York is over,” after being told she cannot smoke at a party. She then says, “I’m so bored I could die,” before falling from an open window 18 stories to her death.

Speaking on the Dear Chelsea podcast, Johnston said she was “a hot mess” at the time and had been dealing with substance abuse for years. She said that while her lifestyle was not as extreme as Lexi’s, she drank heavily after theater performances and occasionally used cocaine.

Johnston said her struggles began in high school and were rooted in a desire to escape. In her 2012 memoir, Guts, she revealed that while starring on 3rd Rock From the Sun, she was taking as many as 30 pills a day.

The actress has been sober on and off for about two decades. She also spoke about the challenges of adjusting to life without drugs and alcohol, saying that recovery forced her to find new ways to fill the time she once spent maintaining her addiction.

Johnston’s younger sister, Julie, died in 2020 from addiction.

Now living outside New York City and rarely partying, Johnston said she still relates to Lexi’s famous comment about the city. She attributed New York’s changes to gentrification, saying there is “no more funk, just mess.”

Johnston said the line remains the first thing many fans mention when they meet her and joked that it could eventually appear on her gravestone.