Emily Ratajkowski felt 'extremely small' after marriage split

Emily Ratajkowski says there should be more conversations about how "women survive marriage and children".

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Emily Ratajkowski felt like a 'possession' whilst married and less valued after divorce
Emily Ratajkowski felt like a 'possession' whilst married and less valued after divorce

Emily Ratajkowski was made to feel "small" by "powerful men" - and admits she can be "aggressive and not particularly nice" around them.

The 33-year-old model has spoken at depth about romanticising marriage and how she was made to feel "extremely small" and “less important and valuable" after her split from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard in September 2022.

Speaking to author Larah Manguso about her novel 'Liars', Emily told Vogue: "I felt marriage was a romantic thing. I thought that it would ultimately be a partnership. I didn’t think about shared labour because, in the immortal words of Cardi B, 'I don’t cook, I don’t clean. Let me show you how I got this ring.' After having a child, I found myself accepting what was happening. I never cooked, and suddenly I was not just cooking but also being the breadwinner while simultaneously organising our social schedule and being the primary caretaker of our child. I’m really interested in the decisions we make in our lives, particularly as women. I would like to have conversations about how women survive marriage and children."

Emily explained how she was made to feel like a "possession".

She said: "I have a really complicated relationship with powerful men. I certainly didn’t want someone who needed me to feel small. I’m quite unpleasant around men who need that, even if they don’t make that explicitly clear; I tend to be aggressive and not particularly nice. I have often attracted men who like big personalities. And yet, by the end of my marriage, I found myself very much in the same position as Jane, which was that my world was suddenly extremely small and less important, less valuable. It was a slow devolution from 'Oh, we’re partners, and this person respects all that I’m doing' to feeling like a possession. I had a deep understanding of misogyny in many ways because I’d not only been raised with parents who talked about it, but I also had very unusual and specific experiences around gender as a model. I really wanted to believe that we were past that."

The ‘High Low with EmRata’ podcast host filed for divorce from ‘Uncut Gems’ producer Sebastian after sources confirmed to Page Six he had allegedly cheated on her multiple times.

She famously had a pair of divorce rings made from the two-stone engagement ring she received from the 37-year-old filmmaker in 2018.

Even though Emily and Sebastian continue to co-parent their son Sylvester, three, she has moved on from their relationship with several flings including with Harry Styles, 30, Pete Davidson, also 30, Eric André, 41, and 37-year-old DJ Orazio Rispo.

Emily has most recently been linked to musician Shaboozey, 29.