At the time of its run,The Good Wifewas one of the hottest legal dramas on television. Following Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) as she returns to her law career after her husband’s very public political scandal, we watch Alicia as she finds her footing in the legal world again. The show featuresan incredible supporting castofChristine Baranski,Chris Noth,Alan Cumming, andArchie Panjabi– whose character, Kalinda, becomes one of Alicia’s closest friends at the firm. But, as it turns out, life did not imitate art in the case of the actresses, andrumors of a behind-the-scenes feud have consistently churned in the years since the series ended.
The Good Wife
Alicia Florrick has been a good wife to her husband, a former state’s attorney. After a very humiliating sex and corruption scandal, he is behind bars. She must now provide for her family and returns to work as a litigator in a law firm.
Alicia and Kalinda’s Friendship Got Complicated Early On in ‘The Good Wife’
When Alicia returns to Lockhart/Gardner after her husband Peter’s scandal, she struggles to easily slip back into the legal lifestyle at first. Kalinda helps her find her footing again and the pair strikes up a friendship that quickly becomes a highlight of the show. Both characters are strong, independent women, so to seethem pair up on cases and work through them together made for excellent television. Their friendship grows and evolves throughout the show’s first two seasons,only to end explosively when it is revealed that Kalinda once slept with Alicia’s husband, Peter. Understandably, this causes a rift between the pair, especially when Alicia tells Kalinda she can’t trust her anymore. Things begin to soften a little when Kalinda helps find Alicia’s daughter after she goes missing. Even though Kalinda doesn’t want Alicia to know she helped, she obviously discovers the truth, and it leads the pair into a more neutral zone again.
Despite the characters rekindling their friendship, much of that rebuilding is strangely absent from the series. At one point,BuzzFeed observedthat the actresses hadn’t shared a scene in over thirty episodes, a stark difference from the show’s first seasons when they were constantly scene partners. Rumors of a feud between Margulies and Panjabi quickly sparked.In a HuffPost interview, with showrunnersRobertandMichelle King, theywere asked whether Alicia and Kalinda would share a scene again, with Robert King saying, “I think so. I mean, here’s the bottom line. We’re trying to follow the reality now that she slept with Peter, which kind of comes back into their lives because one thing when someone’s running for office, scandal tends to follow. There is a possibility.” Robert King would go on to reference the BuzzFeed article, adding, “First of all, I was surprised people are keeping track. Second of all, part of that has been intentional, which is to try and show this relationship, which was a friendship so strong, is now so worse.”
Margulies also chimed in regarding the rift between Alicia and Kalinda in an interview withHuffPost:
“I think Kalinda’s character seems to have gone in a different direction. What keeps the show interesting and sort of satisfying is to see other people come into the central character’s life to open her up. She needs female friendship, but she needs to start from scratch. She can’t be pouring her heart out to someone who once slept with her husband. I mean, it’s just not going to happen. It doesn’t seem realistic. As much as I think the relationship worked in the beginning because Kalinda is such an independent, sort of suffragette woman – it helped Alicia to see she didn’t need to be a wallflower housewife anymore – but I think there have been too many twists and turns there. To bring it back would be going backwards instead of moving forward. And there are only so many scenes at a bar you can do.”
Rumors Only Grew When Archie Panjabi Left ‘The Good Wife’
Despite no true confirmation of a feud between the actresses,a new fire was lit under the rumors when Robert and Michelle King announced Panjabi would be exiting the show following Season 6. “Archie is an amazing actress who helped build Kalinda from the ground up as an enigmatic, powerful, and sexy character,” the Kings announced in a statementvia Deadline. “It’s been a pleasure to write for her, and we’ll be sad to see her go, but we still have her for the rest of Season 6, so let’s not exhaust our goodbyes yet. We look forward to meeting all the wonderful new characters Archie brings to the screen.” Given that Panjabi had been on the show for six seasons, it didn’t necessarily mean there was behind-the-scenes trouble; after all, the show had written outJosh Charlesjust a season prior. But what really fueled the fire was whenit was reportedthat Alicia and Kalinda’s final scene was shot separately, using green screen and body doubles.
Things weren’t made much better when the actresses themselves spoke about the scene and the subsequent rumors. Inan interview with Us Magazine, Panjabi said, “You know, I can’t answer that. It’s not fair for me to answer those decisions. As much as I want to. But those decisions are made by the producers. I’m not privy to those decisions. All I do know is I’m very grateful to the Kings for making the decision to cast me." Her response, while dignified, didn’t answer the burning question or dismiss rumors of a feud, and in fact, only seemed to fuel them more.
During an interview at the New Yorker Festival in 2015,Margulies was also asked about the rumors — and vehemently denied them. “There’s no story there, sorry … I actually had heard that rumor and I feel that it has been talked about and answered.” According to Margulies, the scene between Alicia and Kalinda “was shot the way Robert (King) wanted to shoot it, and the storyline, too. You also have to remember, there’s difficulty … Panjabi was also doing another show, calledThe Fall. I went along with whatever Robert asked me to do and I did it happily.” It was a diplomatic answer in its own right that seemed to set the matter straight — that is, until Panjabi to make her own statement. Linking to the article featuring Margulies’ response,Panjabi tweeted: “@TheFallTV was not even in production at that time and I was in New York ready to film the scene!”
We’ll Probably Never Know for Sure What Went on Behind the Scenes of ‘The Good Wife’
Given that both actresses have seemingly offered definitive responses regarding any rumors of a potential feud, we’ll likely never know what truly went on behind the scenes ofThe Good Wife. However, Panjabi has spoken in recent years about the infamous scene she shot separately from Margulies, as well as the obsession people have with knowing what happened between them.As recently as 2020, she gave a final statement on the rumors:
“Let’s put it this way. We are living in a world where everybody wants to know everything. I completely understand why everyone asks about it. Everybody I meet asks me about it, in some roundabout way. I just feel like, I’m doing work because of that character. Before Kalinda, I was always coming in for a few lines and it was hard to get roles. If people always want to know what happened, OK, it’s a small price to pay for all the wonderful things that show has given me. It sounds diplomatic, but it’s how I feel. … I’m not very complimentary of things. I’m very British and I like to self-deprecate, but I do feel the Alicia and Kalinda scenes were one of the highlights of the show. I’m very proud of them.”
We’ll likely never get any more confirmation on the feud, and though that may be disappointing to some, in a world where little is left secret, the added mystery behind the feud – if there even was one – is sort of intriguing in its own way. Instead, we’ll just have to stick to reruns ofThe Good Wife— preferably the ones where Alicia and Kalinda were on good terms andgirlbossing their way through network television.
The Good Wifeis available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
