Even Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City, doesn't think Carrie Bradshaw would really have ended up with Mr Big - after all, she didn't settle for the real-life version.

Former Vogue and GQ publisher Ron Galotti is said to be the inspiration for Bradshaw's long-standing love interest and eventual husband, played on screen by Chris Noth. Although no one knows for sure that Gal0tti is the man behind the character, consistent speculation points in his direction.

So who is he and how did he come to inspire Bushnell's most divisive leading man?

His background

Galotti was born in the Bronx in New York to Italian-Jewish parents who ran a liquor store. He grew up in Peekshill, in the suburbs of NY, and his father died when he was nine. His only sibling, a sister, was born with Down's Syndrome and died in the late '90s. Galotti struggled at school and eventually joined the Air Force where he was stationed in the Philippines for three and a half years.

Ron Galotti with Chris Noth in 2000

His career

After the army, he got a job selling ad space for Home Sewing News, which was owned by a friend of his mother’s. He got a taste for publishing and went on to work for Fawcett publishing, but was eventually poached by Hearst where he was asked to launch Country Living. In 1982, Galotti was headhunted by Conde Nast where he worked initially on Mademoiselle, before reviving Vanity Fair. He was then tasked with Vogue - Conde Nast's biggest money maker - and GQ. Eventually, he was dismissed (there is no official line as to why) and moved to Vermont to live a quieter life.

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He led the high life

Galotti enjoyed the perks that came with being a high-flying publisher. “You have a car and driver. You have your country club. Since you spend all your time doing business, everything is paid for,” he told New York Magazine. His friend, Luca di Montezemolo, then the president of Ferrari, once reportedly sent a Falcon 10 to pick him up in Paris, flew him to Bologna, where a helicopter was waiting to drop him at the Ferrari test track in Marinello, where he test-drove the latest models.

Galotti with Linda Evangelista in 1996

He had a reputation as a womaniser

Galotti has been married twice, first to ski champion Lisa Wilcox, then later to Hearst publisher Donna Kalajian - who consequently had an affair, ending their 12-year marriage. Between wives, he dated model Janice Dickinson - she says she left Sylvester Stallone for him - and Candace Bushnell, who he met at a party in 1995. The two dated for a year and Bushnell wrote about their relationship in her dating column for the New York Observer.

Bushnell gave him the nickname Mr Big

“He was one of those New York guys with a big personality—you just notice him as soon as he walks in the room,” Bushnell told New York Magazine. “I called him Mr Big because he was like a big man on campus.”

He's more than just a playboy

“Ron is much more of a well-rounded person than you’d think,” said Bushnell. “He cooks, he gardens. In some ways, he’d prefer to be at home to going out on the town.” Bushnell told Elle that she and Galotti are still in touch today.

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