Emmy Rossum dispels ‘common misconception’ about her shocking ‘Shameless’ exit years later
Emmy Rossum shut down the long-standing rumor that she exited “Shameless” to start a family.
“I think a common misconception is I left to go have babies,” the actress, who portrayed Fiona Gallagher for nine seasons on the hit 2010s series from 2011 to 2019, shared on Wednesday’s episode of “Call Her Daddy.”
“That could not be further from the truth. I left to go make the show I had been developing that our showrunner John Wells had encouraged me to kinda get in the driver’s seat of my own career and make my own shows and make things.”
Rossum, 39, told host Alex Cooper that she had launched her own production company, Composition 8, in 2019 and had already started working on her 2022 one-season drama series, “Angelyne,” when she was offered two more years on the Showtime comedy.
“I wanted to stay in the job. I loved the job,” she explained elsewhere.
“I wasn’t walking away from the job. I loved the job until it felt like there wasn’t enough juice to squeeze out of the lemon,” the “Phantom of the Opera” star continued, adding that she felt “beholden” to move forward with her own show.
Rossum noted that she left “Shameless” with “a lot of grief and sorrow” because she would miss her co-stars and “couldn’t believe that they were going to go on the journey without [her].”
“But I was also really excited. I felt like I was launching and getting ready to start this new chapter,” she pointed out.
The Paul Abbott-created show, also starring Jeremy Allen White and William Macy, ended with 11 seasons in 2021.
Rossum was previously married to Justin Siegel from 2008 to 2010. She tied the knot for a second time to Sam Esmail in 2017, and the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named May, born in 2021.
The “Mystic River” star and Esmail expanded their family in 2023 when they welcomed a son, whose name hasn’t been revealed.
Rossum also opened up about her fertility journey and diagnosis with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) before conceiving a child through IVF.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, PMOS is a “condition that affects your hormones,” and can lead to “irregular menstrual periods, excess hair growth, acne and infertility.”
“I had had a kind of crazy journey to get pregnant, where I have [PMOS], so I had very debilitating ovarian cysts throughout my 20s, and tried to get pregnant naturally,” she explained. “It didn’t happen … then tried IVF, and it happened in a big way.”
Rossum also recalled being vulnerable after giving birth and in awe that she kept her daughter “safe” inside her for so long ahead of the latter’s arrival.
