Did the ending of Sex/Life make you want to hurl your remote at the screen? Because I'm just saying, Netflix may owe me a new TV. After eight long episodes of manipulating her gorgeous and a tad bit emotionally unavailable husband, Cooper (Mike Vogel), into spicing up their sex life via everything from toys to sex parties, Billie (Sarah Shahi) decided she wanted to have her cake and then keep a whole other cake all to herself in New York City for funsies. It was an infuriating ending for anyone firmly on #TeamCooper, and it left me wondering if the real Billie and Cooper are still married.
The answer to that question is an emphatic yes, and I'm willing to bet it's because while Sex/Life is inspired by BB Easton's comedic memoir 44 Chapters About 4 Men, it's not exactly a faithful adaptation. First of all, Easton's book is all about how she tricked Ken into becoming more sexually adventurous by leaving out explicit journal entries about her old boyfriends for him to find. Throughout the book, her goal is to improve the one aspect of her marriage that needs some work — her sex life.
It's very much not about her putting her marriage on the line to be with her bad boy ex Brad (Adam Demos) — who is loosely based on Easton's rocker ex, Hans. But the show is a drama, so it adds a new dynamic to the story by having Brad reappear in Billie's life at a time when she's already losing herself in memories of their tumultuous relationship. By the end of Season 1, Billie decides that even though Ken has stepped up his game in the bedroom, and their marriage somehow survived the chaos of Hurricane Brad — not to mention the sex party incident — she wants to have regular sex with her ex, while also remaining married to her husband.
There's just no way around it: Billie is exhausting. And while Easton isn't afraid of being candid about marital hiccups, she's also made it very clear that her marriage is rock solid (even though Ken isn't the biggest fan of her first book). In a 2016 interview with The Bookish Baker blog, the author opened up about just how happy she is to have the solid Ken in her life after spending her early years exclusively dating "bad guys."
"I think what I want everyone to know about Ken is that I love the shit out of that man," she said. "I wrote 44 Chapters in the dark, while I was drinking and spewing my frustrations out into my laptop, so no, there’s not a bunch of lovie dovie frou frou about Ken. He makes me fucking crazy. He never compliments me or says anything romantic or touches me unless there’s a mosquito on my leg, but he is my best friend. He makes me laugh. He challenges me. He does ALL the grown-up stuff in our household. He’s gorgeous. He’s brilliant. And he comes with me to every book signing even though he hasn’t even read the book and he hates the fact that it even exists. He is a real man. All those other guys I wrote about were boys. Sexy bad boys, but boys. Ken is all man."
And as of 2021, Easton and Ken are still very much in love, as evidenced by his frequent mentions in her Instagram posts. He's also extremely happy that Vogel is playing the fictionalized version of him in Sex/Life. Earlier in June, Easton posted on Instagram: "@realmikevogel made Ken’s LIFE by agreeing to play the role of Cooper on @sexlife. But then we saw his performance and were completely blown away. Mike captured that humble, honest, emotionally repressed, good guy vibe PERFECTLY."
So while, Cooper and Billie are looking more and more doomed by the second, rest assured that BB and Ken Easton are not only married, but also super in love with each other if Easton's gushy posts are anything to go by. That almost makes up for Sex/Life's terrible ending, right?
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Images: Sophie Giraud/Netflix; Amanda Matlovich/Netflix