Sex and the City star tells of her love for another woman

Former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has spoken for the first time about leaving the father of her two children for another woman.

Nixon, 40, said she had never thought of herself as a lesbian, or struggled with her sexual identity, but simply fell in love.

But she was stunned by the world-wide response when she left childhood sweetheart Danny Mozes, father of her daughter Samantha, now nine, and three-year-old Charles, for teaching union leader Christine Marinoni two years ago.

Nixon, who played cynical lawyer Miranda Hobbes in the long-running series, told New York magazine: "I never felt like there was an unconscious part of me that woke up or that came out of the closet.

"There wasn't a struggle, there wasn't an attempt to suppress. I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I'm a public figure.

"I feel like there was an enormous temperature spike, where I was on the front page of two daily papers. There was paparazzi outside my house.

"My girlfriend had English press on her parents' lawn. Every person she went to high school with got a phone call.

"They almost put me on the cover of People magazine. And then it died. Because there wasn't really anything to say.

"I can't remember in what context they tell people this, but if someone is chasing you, stop running. And then they'll stop chasing you."

Nixon, who is in rehearsals for a New York revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, said she still loves the series which made her a household name.

Marinoni seldom watched Sex and the City and Nixon plans to sit down with her and watch a DVD marathon of the show.

The couple's relationship became public days after Nixon won an Emmy for the show after her third nomination.