Emily Ratajkowski has spent much of her career being photographed, discussed and interpreted by other people. In 2026, she appears increasingly interested in controlling the story herself.
The 35-year-old model, actress, author and entrepreneur — widely known as EmRata — remains a major fashion presence, but her life today stretches well beyond modeling.
She has entered a public relationship with French filmmaker Romain Gavras, written candidly about divorce and dating as a single mother, returned to acting and landed another major fashion campaign.
She is also preparing for a second book after the success of her 2021 essay collection, My Body.
Here is where Emily Ratajkowski’s life and career stand in 2026.
Who Is EmRata?
Emily Ratajkowski was born in London on June 7, 1991, and grew up primarily in California.
She began modeling when she was young and eventually became internationally recognizable through fashion campaigns, magazine appearances and music videos.
Her fame expanded considerably during the early 2010s.
Instead of remaining exclusively in modeling, Ratajkowski moved into acting, business and writing.
That evolution has become increasingly important to how she presents herself publicly.
The image may have created the celebrity, but Ratajkowski has spent years examining what happens when a woman’s appearance becomes part of her livelihood.
Romain Gavras
Ratajkowski’s romantic life has entered another chapter with French filmmaker Romain Gavras.
After the pair generated dating speculation, Ratajkowski made the relationship unmistakably public through Instagram photos showing them together affectionately.
Gavras is an established filmmaker and music-video director.
He has directed films including Athena and worked with prominent musicians during his career.
He was also previously romantically linked to Dua Lipa.
Ratajkowski’s decision to share her relationship publicly attracted considerable attention because it followed several years in which her post-divorce dating life became a regular source of celebrity headlines.
Her Marriage
Before her relationship with Gavras, Ratajkowski was married to producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.
The couple married in February 2018 after a relatively brief courtship.
They welcomed their son, Sylvester Apollo Bear, in March 2021.
Their marriage later deteriorated, and Ratajkowski separated from Bear-McClard in 2022 before filing for divorce that September.
The experience profoundly changed how she thought about relationships, independence and motherhood.
Those themes have subsequently appeared throughout her writing and interviews.
Son Sylvester
Ratajkowski’s most important role away from work is being Sylvester’s mother.
She has shared selected moments with her son publicly while maintaining boundaries around his everyday life.
Motherhood has also influenced the way she discusses work and relationships.
Rather than treating being a mother as something separate from her public identity, Ratajkowski has written about the complicated expectations society places on women after they have children.
Those expectations became especially important after her marriage ended.
Suddenly, she was not simply a divorced celebrity.
She was navigating dating while raising a young child.
Single-Mom Essay
In June 2026, Ratajkowski published a revealing personal essay about sex and dating after becoming a single mother.
The piece explored the emotional shift that followed the collapse of her marriage.
She described entering a period of intense dating while trying to escape the cultural image of a single mother as someone who should be pitied.
Her writing was deliberately uncomfortable in places.
Rather than presenting divorce as a neat journey from heartbreak to empowerment, Ratajkowski examined the contradictions involved in trying to reclaim control.
She could feel powerful one moment and vulnerable the next.
Her “Villain” Era
One of the essay’s most memorable ideas involved the persona Ratajkowski created after her separation.
Instead of accepting the role of the abandoned or unfortunate single mother, she imagined herself as something closer to a seductive supervillain.
It was armor.
The persona allowed her to approach dating as someone supposedly untouchable and completely independent.
Eventually, however, she recognized that playing the fearless woman could become another performance.
That realization gave the essay more depth than a straightforward celebration of casual dating.
Ratajkowski was examining how easily women can replace one socially constructed identity with another.
Leaving Marriage
Another important theme was Ratajkowski’s understanding of her divorce.
She wrote about how uncomfortable she felt when people responded to her separation with pity.
Their reactions made her feel as though she had been rejected.
A conversation with her divorce lawyer helped change that perspective.
Ratajkowski began thinking about the ability to leave an unhappy situation as a form of strength.
That idea — choosing rather than simply being chosen — has become central to her post-marriage identity.
Second Book
Ratajkowski is now turning that period of her life into another major writing project.
Her second book, reported under the title MOTHER FCKER*, became the subject of intense publishing interest in 2026.
Reports said the project was sold to Penguin Press following a competitive 12-way bidding process and a seven-figure deal.
The new book follows My Body, her bestselling 2021 essay collection.
While her first book examined modeling, sexuality, power and the commercialization of beauty, the next project is expected to move deeper into divorce, motherhood, desire and the life she constructed afterward.
My Body
My Body marked an important turning point in how audiences viewed Ratajkowski.
For years, much of the public discussion surrounding her focused almost entirely on photographs and physical appearance.
The book challenged that relationship.
Through essays, Ratajkowski explored what it meant to profit from her image while sometimes feeling that the same image no longer belonged entirely to her.
She wrote about modeling, celebrity, money, consent and power.
The book became a New York Times bestseller and established writing as a serious part of her career rather than a celebrity side project.
Fashion Power
Modeling nevertheless remains central to Ratajkowski’s professional life.
In July 2026, Abercrombie & Fitch unveiled her as one of the stars of its Fall 2026 denim campaign.
Called “Denim Made Iconic,” the campaign was photographed by Cass Bird around New York City.
Ratajkowski appeared alongside model Paloma Elsesser and New York Giants players Jaxson Dart and Malik Nabers.
The imagery leaned heavily into New York street style, with Ratajkowski wearing relaxed denim and layered looks around downtown locations.
For a model strongly associated with New York fashion, the setting was particularly fitting.
Red Carpet
Ratajkowski continues to generate attention on major fashion red carpets as well.
At the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party, she wore a velvet Conner Ives gown that had recently appeared on the designer’s London Fashion Week runway.
The deep maroon look featured a dramatically plunging neckline and immediately became one of the night’s most photographed outfits.
Fashion remains one area where Ratajkowski understands exactly how to create a moment.
Her red-carpet appearances frequently balance minimal styling with silhouettes designed to command attention.
Acting Return
Ratajkowski has also returned to acting after spending years largely away from film and television sets.
Her most notable recent role came in Lena Dunham’s Netflix series Too Much.
She played Wendy Jones, an influencer who becomes romantically involved with the ex-boyfriend of central character Jessica, played by Megan Stalter.
The casting was knowingly self-aware.
Wendy initially appears to represent the impossibly attractive social-media woman another person might instinctively resent.
The series gradually complicates that image.
Too Much
Dunham specifically wrote the role with Ratajkowski in mind.
That mattered because Ratajkowski had largely stepped away from acting.
Her earlier screen career included David Fincher’s Gone Girl, We Are Your Friends, Entourage and I Feel Pretty.
In Too Much, she returned with a character that cleverly played with public assumptions about women who look and live like influencers.
Instead of simply functioning as a romantic rival, Wendy eventually becomes more sympathetic and complicated.
The role mirrored themes Ratajkowski has explored in her own writing: projection, beauty, female competition and the difference between an image and the person behind it.
Business Career
Ratajkowski has also spent years building commercial projects around her name.
Her fashion brand Inamorata expanded her professional identity beyond simply being hired to model another company’s products.
That move reflected a broader pattern in her career.
Whether through books, acting, fashion or business, she has repeatedly tried to move from being the subject of someone else’s project toward having greater ownership over her work.
That desire for control also connects directly with the ideas explored in My Body.
Life At 35
Ratajkowski turned 35 in June 2026.
Her career now looks considerably different from the one that first made her famous.
She is still a model and remains highly visible in fashion.
But she is simultaneously a bestselling author, mother, actress and entrepreneur.
Her relationship with Romain Gavras has created a new celebrity storyline, yet her recent writing suggests that she no longer views romantic partnership as the defining feature of her adult life.
That may be the biggest difference between the earlier and current versions of EmRata.
A New Chapter
Emily Ratajkowski’s 2026 story is ultimately about reinvention.
Her marriage to Sebastian Bear-McClard ended, but motherhood continued reshaping her priorities. Dating became material for examining sexuality and independence rather than simply tabloid gossip.
Her relationship with Romain Gavras has now become public, while her professional life continues moving in several directions at once.
She remains a major model, leads Abercrombie & Fitch’s latest denim campaign, has returned to acting through Too Much and is developing the writing career that began with My Body.
The second book may reveal even more about that transformation.
For someone who became famous largely because the world wanted to look at her, Ratajkowski’s current work increasingly asks people to listen to what she has to say.
