When it comes to rumors that Sex/Life star Sarah Shahi left her husband for co-star Adam Demos, she says they’ve got it all wrong. In a new interview on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, she clarified that there was space between her split from ex-husband Steve Howey and her relationship with Adam. “We met each other and it was not instant,” the actress and model, 43, said. “It was over time, it was getting to know him as a person and seeing how aligned our values were. … I also really respected how he talked about his mom and how he talked about women. There was just so much that I started seeing over time that made me go, ‘Oh, you’re kind of everything I’ve ever wanted.’ And that’s when we started being together.”
As for the breakdown on her marriage to Steve, she says her relationship “suffered” after they started a family. “From the time that our first child was born, our relationship suffered and it was hard to get back on track,” the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader said during the April 4 podcast episode. “We were together for a very long time. We were together for 18 years. That’s not a failure. That was a long time. But the last 10 years we really did struggle.”
The former couple, who filed for divorced in May 2020, share twins Knox and Violet, 8, and son William, 13. “Any flaws you have in the relationship before you have kids, if you don’t settle those things — that was my experience of, ‘It gets worse,’” she said during the podcast. “It only gets worse. You have less time for each other, you have less patience, you have less desire because you’re just so damn tired.”
After 11 years of marriage, their split was finalized in 2021, and Sarah has continued her relationship with Adam since. Adam plays her character’s love interest in the popular Netflix drama, so naturally their relationship sparked rumors of drama. However, Us Weekly notes that the steamy series didn’t begin filming until August of 2020–a full three months after she filed for divorce from Steve.