Seven years after leaving Shameless, Emmy Rossum is setting the record straight about her departure
During the Wednesday (July 8) episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 39-year-old actress, who portrayed Fiona Gallagher for nine seasons, explained her decision to exit the Showtime series in 2019, shutting down the rumor that she left to start a family and revealing the real reason she stepped away, per Page Six
“I think a common misconception is I left to go have babies,” she said. “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.”
The Phantom of the Opera actress had launched her production company Composition 8 in 2019 and was working on another drama series Angelyne when she was offered two more seasons for Shameless. However, she explained that she felt “beholden” to continue working on her new show
“I wanted to stay in the job,” she said. “I wasn’t walking away from the job. I loved the job until I felt like there wasn’t enough juice to squeeze out of the lemon.”
Despite feeling “really excited […] to start this new chapter,” Rossum said she also felt “a lot of grief and sorrow” about leaving her co-stars as they “[went] on the journey without [her].” The series, which also starredJeremy Allen White and William H. Macy, ran for two more seasons after Rossum’s departure before ending in 2021
While Rossum’s decision to leave was a professional choice rather than personal, she and husband Sam Esmail eventually did add to their family. They welcomed their first child together, daughter May, in 2021, and had a son in 2023
