‘And Just Like That’ character Steve’s hearing loss inspired by actor David Eigenberg’s real-life experience

Steve Brady’s hearing loss didn’t come about just like that.

The “And Just Like That” character’s storyline in HBO Max’s “Sex and the City” revival was inspired by the real-life experience of David Eigenberg, who portrays Miranda’s (Cynthia Nixon) husband.

“When [showrunner] Michael Patrick [King] reconnected with David Eigenberg about the show, the very first thing that David said was, ‘I got hearing aids.’ It was literally what he led with,” show writer Elisa Zuritsky told Vanity Fair in an interview published Thursday.

“That actually wound up being Steve’s tone about his aging [in the show],” said Zuritsky. “Everyone on the show, every single person, loves David Eigenberg as a human being. We love him as an actor. We love Steve. We really are invested in the Steve-ness of him. He’s so full of life, and the Steves out there are good guys.”

“But Miranda’s journey is representing another reality out there, which a lot of people go through — the reevaluations and transitions in life,” Julie Rottenberg, who along with Zuritsky wrote on the original HBO smash hit, told the magazine.

Among the many complaints leveled at “And Just Like That,” Steve’s “bummer storyline,” as Vanity Fair called it, is a big one, spawning advocacy pieces and Reddit protests alike.

“The decision to [make ‘And Just Like That...’] was not born out of commercialism,” said Zuritsky. “Creatively, we wanted to see what happened to these women... Where are they? What have they gone through? ... How are they rooted in the real-life experience of women in their 50s?”

While plenty of viewers and critics have celebrated the desire to spotlight women in their 50s, many have taken the show to task for appearing to equate middle age to obsolescence — from Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) being widowed thanks to a Peloton-related heart attack to suffering from a hip issue (though that’s later revealed to be congenital), and the cosmopolitan leading ladies seeming to be largely out of touch with a lot.

“We don’t ever forget that this season was born out of a very painful tragedy,” said Rottenberg. “But you will be happy to find comedy in the last four episodes.”