Charlotte and Trey's Marriage Never Started With a Bang — and It Ended With a Photo Shoot

Despite the fact that humans contain multitudes, women are often distilled down to seven two-dimensional archetypes. They are the mother, the maiden, the queen, the huntress, the sage, the mystic, and the lover. It's hard to say which came first, the personality traits or the superficial labels. The best place for these basic b----es, if you will, to live is in fiction. (In the land of make believe the shallow woman is queen, or something like that.)

On Sex and the City, our four female protagonists juggle the aforementioned archetypes, though some embody one or two more than the others. As an advice columnist, Carrie was the definitely the sage. Miranda, the lawyer with the hard edges but the soft soul, was clearly the huntress. Obviously Samantha was the lover, and Charlotte was the maiden hoping to be the mother. When she got married it seemed as if that dream might come true, until the split. Why did Charlotte and Trey divorce? Let's get into it.

Charlotte and Trey had the kind of meet-cute that one can only find, well, on television or in the movies. While escaping from a particularly horrendous date, Charlotte was accidentally hit by a taxi while darting across the street. Who was in the cab? It was none other than Dr. Trey MacDougal. From the moment their eyes locked, it was clear this was that love at first sight thing some people claim is real.

Their courtship was swift, which probably accounts for a few important conversations being swept under the rug. The first sign that things were going to be a bit bumpy was when Charlotte realized Trey was still under the spell of his domineering mother, Bunny. Things only got worse when Trey casually mentioned a prenuptial agreement, spearheaded by Bunny of course. Charlotte relented and signed it, after making a few adjustments in her favor.

Throughout their relationship and the wedding planning, Trey and Charlotte never had sex. Soon she rebranded their lack of physical intimacy to waiting for the wedding, but on their wedding night, Trey's package couldn't deliver. This was an ongoing problem solved only after Trey briefly moved out. Samantha nailed when she said he had a Madonna/Whore complex.

What finally put the final nail in the coffin of their marriage was actually quite sad. They attempted to get pregnant until Charlotte discovered she has a titled uterus, which would make a pregnancy nearly impossible. The next step was in vitro fertilization, which also didn't work. When Charlotte pivoted to adoption, Trey had simply had enough. Though he left first, they both knew they wanted different things.

There are so many memorable scenes in Sex and the City. There are always certain ones that come to mind, such as Carrie getting dumped by way of a Post-It Note, or Miranda's religious cleaning woman replacing her vibrator with a statue of the Virgin Mary. Then there are the scenes that are small in scope and scale but overwhelming in an emotional sense. Charlotte and Trey's last day together as a married couple is one of those moments.

Charlotte had redecorated their apartment, which attracted the fictional magazine of House and Gardens. The magazine set up a photo shoot with the seemingly perfect couple, for which the preparation kept Charlotte from thinking of her failing marriage. While arranging flowers in the entryway, Charlotte was reminding Trey about the photo. "I don't want to do this," he said. "It's just one picture, and it's important to me," Charlotte replied. Sadly Trey was referring to their marriage, not the photo shoot.

A heartbreaking yet sweet exchange happened where you saw Trey wishing that he wanted children as much as Charlotte did. He agreed to give her the apartment and said he was moving back in with his mother. What happened the following day was the quiet dagger to the heart. Charlotte assumed Trey wouldn't be there for the picture, but he surprised her by showing up. As the camera was about to go off, he bent down and whispered, "This is important to you. I at least want to do this." And just like that, their marriage was over.