Cynthia Nixon Reflects on Che Diaz’s Exit from ‘And Just Like That’: ‘The Arc Was Completed’

Cynthia Nixon has portrayed Miranda Hobbes for more than a quarter century, from her time on Sex and the City to the sequel series And Just Like That. In that time, she’s seen other characters come and go, and now, she’s able to look back on Che Diaz, the nonbinary standup comedian played by Sara Ramirez.

Che was Miranda’s love interest in the first two seasons of And Just Like That following her split from Steve (David Eigenberg), but the character seemingly will not return for season 3, set to premiere in 2025.

“They created such an amazing character — such a controversial character, but such an amazing character,” Nixon said in an interview with Variety published on Thursday, May 30. “I think they felt, and [showrunner] Michael Patrick [King] felt, that that character had run its course. They came in and shook everything up, and then the arc was completed.”

Che first appeared on the show as a podcast cohost with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker). The character was controversial from the start, even being called “the worst character on television” by The Daily Beast.

“There is no exaggerating how insufferable this character is,” Daily Beast editor Kevin Fallon wrote in 2022. “To call them unwatchable is not hyperbole. ‘Cringing’ is not a strong enough verb to describe what the body reflexively does when they are on screen, like a physical defense mechanism.”

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Critics of the series accused And Just Like That of being too “woke” as an overcorrection from the original Sex and the City’s overwhelmingly white cast.

King said that Che was “built for'' Ramirez, who is also nonbinary, to play. The character was inspired by Nixon, who didn’t want Miranda to fall in love with her professor, Nya (Karen Pittman), as originally planned.

“Why couldn't it be this butch person that you're talking about having for Carrie?" Nixon recalled asking in a documentary released alongside the first season.

Nixon came out as gay in 2004, so giving Miranda a queer storyline seemed to fit for the actress.

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“I’ve grown much more like [Miranda] as I’ve grown older, and she’s grown much more like me,” Nixon told Variety. “It was nothing that I was advocating for, but smart writers, particularly on long-term projects that keep going and evolving, try [to] put as much of the real person in that character as they can, because that’s one of the things that makes television or film or theater so powerful — when the person playing the role has a personal connection.”

Despite Nixon’s reflection on Che’s character, Ramirez’s departure from the show has not been confirmed by the actor or Max.