Dying for Sex: Heartbreaking true story behind new Michelle Williams drama

The drama is produced by three-time Emmy winner Nikki Boyer, who is played by Jenny Slate in the show

Many television shows have attempted to capture the complicated ways humans try to grapple with impending death, but Dying for Sex might just be the raunchiest.

The new comedy drama, which arrives on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in the U.K. April 4, stars Michelle Williams as Molly Kochan, a woman who receives a Stage IV cancer diagnosis and decides to leave her husband of 15 years.

Molly sets out to learn more about herself and her sexual desires with the time she has left, supported by her best friend Nikki Boyer (portrayed by Jenny Slate).

As listeners of the wildly popular Dying for Sex podcast will know, all of this is based on a true story. The real-life Kochan died in 2019 at the age of 45, but not before recording all six episodes of the podcast with Boyer.

By 2015, she had already undergone chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, radiation therapy and a breast reconstruction when she was re-diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer.

Knowing this diagnosis was terminal, Kochan decided to end her marriage and embark on a series of horizon-widening sexual adventures.

Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate in FX's 'Dying for Sex' (Sarah Shatz/FX)

“Sexually, we had difficulties before cancer came along,” she said of her marriage in one episode of the podcast. “Right before I got diagnosed, I was kind of looking to recharge our sex life… and then cancer showed up.”

In 2018, over a lunch date with Boyer, Kochan revealed she’d already been on two dates that morning. The pair came up with the idea for the Dying for Sex podcast, which would see them unpack nearly 200 of Kochan’s sexual encounters, as well as opening up about their trauma, grief and friendship.

The podcast was eventually released by Wondery in 2020, a year after Kochan’s death, and it quickly became a hit. It has since been downloaded five million times. Kochan’s memoir, Screw Cancer: Becoming Whole, was published that same year.

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The podcast’s many fans included New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether, who adapted it for television alongside playwright Kim Rosenstock. Boyer serves as an executive producer on the show.

The series is reported to stick pretty faithfully to Kochan’s real story, with Jay Duplass playing her ex-husband and a cast filled out by Rob Delaney, David Rasche, Esco Jouléy, Kelvin Yu and Sissy Spacek.

Early reviews for the show have been glowing, with The Wrap writing that Williams turns in a “career-best performance” while The Daily Beast says the show “is equal parts pleasure and pain. Courtesy of Williams’ latest masterful performance, Meriwether and Rosenstock’s series proves a wholly rewarding trip—right up to its sweet and sad climax.”