Who are Sarah Jessica Parker's parents? All about her family as actress announces sudden death of stepfather

American actress Sarah Jessica Parker recently lost her stepfather, Paul Giffin Forste, due to an "unexpected and rapid illness."

The 57-year-old star's family announced his death and added that Paul died on September 28, 2022, a day after Sarah attended the premiere of Hocus Pocus 2.

In a statement issued to People Magazine, the family wrote:

"Our family is sad to announce that after an unexpected and rapid illness, Paul Giffin Forste passed away yesterday at age 76. In his last moments he was surrounded with the love and gratitude of his adored wife Barbara of 54 years, and children, including Sarah Jessica Parker. Paul will be remembered with the spirit of loving kindness which was his faith, his special delight in his 13 grandchildren, and his sustained belief in making the world a more charitable, tolerant, and beautiful place for all."

As per Entertainment Tonight, before the family revealed the news, the Honeymoon in Vegas star backed out of the New York Ballet 2022 Fall Fashion Gala on September 28 and the press conference for Hocus Pocus 2.

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All you need to know about Sarah Jessica Parker's parents and family

Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, and is the daughter of Stephen Parker and Barbara Froste. Together, the couple shared four children, Sarah being the youngest of them all. Stephen walked out on his family when the Sex and the City star was only a year old.

After they split up, Barbara soon married Paul Froste, who was a theater student at the time. According to Hollywood Life, her second husband ran a bus and truck transportation business.

Sarah Jessica Parker has seven siblings as her mother, Barbara, and Paul welcomed three children after their wedding. The actress has talked about financial struggles during her childhood, which has made fans dub her "real life Cinderella" as her life switched after becoming famous.

While speaking to the New York Times in 2000, she revealed remembering her childhood as "Dickensian":

"I remember being poor. There was no great way to hide it. We didn’t have electricity sometimes. We didn’t have Christmases sometimes, or we didn’t have birthdays sometimes, or the bill collectors came, or the phone company would call and say, ‘We’re shutting your phones off.’ And we were all old enough to either get the calls, or watch my mother’s reactions or watch my parents shuffling the money around.”

Not much is known about her private life, but she is not the only one from the family to be in the entertainment business.

She is the sister of Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker. The former has acted in several television shows like Divorce and Law & Order, while Pippin happens to be a theater director and a playwright. She is also the Dean of the New School of Drama in New York.

Sarah Jessica Parker was in an 8-year-long relationship with Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. After the duo split up in 1991, she crossed paths with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off star Matthew Broderick when her two brothers introduced the duo to each other in New York City.

The couple soon began dating and starred together in Broadway's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1996. A year later, they tied the knot in Manhattan, New York, and have been going strong for 25 years now.

The couple share three kids together. They welcomed their first child, James, in 2002, and their twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, seven years later via surrogacy.