'Sex and the City' star says she was forced to choose between the show or having kids

— -- Actress Kim Cattrall has said that she was forced to choose between starting a family or working on the hit HBO TV series "Sex and the City," which launched her career in the late 1990s.

Cattrall, 61, told British television host Piers Morgan that she and her then-husband Mark Levinson considered undergoing IVF treatment in order to have a baby shortly after she was cast as feisty public relations maven Samantha Jones in the long-running TV series.

"That was my early 40s, and I had just started filming 'Sex and the City,' the chances of getting pregnant with these procedures ... everybody was talking about it," Cattrall said Monday night on "Piers Morgan's Life Stories." "But I thought to myself, 'Wow ... I have 19-hour days on this series.'"

She added: "I have weekends where I finish at Saturday morning, my Monday morning would start at 4:45, and would go to one or two in the morning," she added. "How could I possibly continue to do that, especially in my early 40s?"

Cattrall's comments shed light on an issue faced by many women in the workforce and have sparked a heated dialogue on social media.

Cattrall has expressed her thoughts on motherhood in past interviews, saying that she finds being described as "childless" offensive.

“It sounds like you're less because you haven't had a child,” she said in a 2015 interview with BBC Radio. “There are many different ways to be a mom in the world.”

“I am a parent,” she added. “I have young actors and actresses that I mentor. I have nieces and nephews that I am very close to.”

Cattrall also addressed the rumors that she was the reason that the "Sex and the City 3" film never happened, telling Morgan that she has "never been friends" with her co-stars.

"I remember so clearly making that decision, and last December I got a phone call and it was concerning that, and the answer was simply 'Thank you, but no,'" she said of deciding not to take part in a film.

She added that receiving the "negative press" for her decision, that called her "demanding" or "a diva" is upsetting.

"This is really where I take to tasks the people from 'Sex and the City,' and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker," she said. "I think she could've been nicer, I really think she could've been nicer."

"It's a great part and I played it past the finish line, and then some, and I loved it," Cattrall said. "And another actress should play it. Maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones, or a Hispanic Samantha Jones."