Emmy Rossum opened up about how her decision to film nude scenes on Shameless affected her dating life.
“It got quite tricky because of the nudity on the show,” Rossum, 40, shared on a recent episode of the “Pretty Tough” podcast. “All of the guys that I would go out with had preconceived notions of who I was or how I was sexually.”
Rossum, who played Fiona on nine seasons of the show, recalled a specific encounter, saying, “I met this guy on a plane and he was very cute and he took me out on a date. We were not meant to be together. But he was like, ‘I really want to be president someday.’”
The actress was put off when the unnamed man objected to her career.
“He’s like, ‘But I feel like running for office and dating someone who’s been exposed in the way that you have … do you think that would be tricky for me?’ And I was like, ‘This is an insane conversation to have,’” she added. “So I think growing up in your 20s, you’re dating and you’re trying to figure out who you are.”
Rossum continued: “There’s also all these preconceived notions about you that are out there because your body is your art, right? And people can get confused. So that certainly came up for me.”
Before exchanging vows with husband Sam Esmail in 2017, Rossum was briefly married to Justin Siegel from 2008 to 2010 and later romantically linked to Adam Duritz. She recently reflected on the challenges she faced on her search for The One.
“My 21-year-old brain thought, you know, divorce doesn’t seem that complicated. Like, it’s probably pretty straightforward,” she shared on a July episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast about her divorce from Siegal. “And so he literally printed out a marriage contract online and got some guy on the internet to come over to my house. I found a white turtleneck that was in my closet and threw it on because I was like, ‘This is appropriate, right?’”
Rossum and Siegel, 45, secretly tied the knot in February 2008. Their marriage only became public when Siegel filed for divorce in 2009.
Gallaghers forever! The long-running dramedy Shameless wrapped up its 10-year run in April 2021, but the Gallagher family’s antics will always live on in viewers’ hearts. Based on a British TV show of the same name, Shameless premiered on Showtime in January 2011. William H. Macy anchored the cast as Frank Gallagher, the family patriarch. […]
“I think we were married for, oh, I was away for six months. When I got back, it became abundantly clear we weren’t a match in any way,” Rossum recalled. “I told my mom, ‘Hey, I’m breaking up with Justin, and I need a lawyer.’ She was like, ‘You did not.’ I was like, ‘I did.’”
Rossum went on to marry Esmail, 49, and the couple welcomed two kids, a daughter born in May 2021 and a son born in April 2023.
“We knew each other for about a year,” Rossum shared in July. “We developed the movie, went and found financing for the movie, put the movie together, he cast it. And then we had spent time together over that year. And I remember I started thinking about life through the lens of him. I would be eating a sandwich and I’d be like, ‘I wonder if Sam likes tuna.’ Or I’d be like, you know, I drove past a museum and was like, ‘I wonder if Sam would like to see the Kubrick exhibit. I wonder if Sam would think that’s funny.’”
Rossum continued, “I was so curious about him. And I had spent so long trying to find someone that I thought would understand me, when I realized maybe what I’m after is trying to find somebody I never want to stop trying to understand. Like, I was so fascinated by him.”
