Dana Delany turned down the lead role in the iconic HBO series Sex and the City.

The actress, who plays Katherine Mayfair on ABC’s Emmy-winning dramedy Desperate Housewives, says she was offered the part of “Carrie Bradshaw” on the hit TV series, but turned down the role made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker because she had just starred in kinky 1994 movie Exit to Eden was “tired of taking about sex.”

“The producer of Sex and the City, Darren Star, was an old friend of mine and he talked to me about it. But I had just played Mistress Lisa in Eden and people reacted badly to it,” she explains.

“I had been America’s sweetheart and they (the public) just didn’t want to see me in that role. So I said, ‘Darren, I just can’t talk about sex one more time’. So Sarah Jessica Parker made it her own.”

Nonetheless, Dana says she’s glad she turned down the role because she doubts SATC would have been as successful without SJP.

“I wouldn’t have been the fashion icon that she was. It would have been a completely different show and who knows if it would have been a hit?”