Emily Ratajkowski is a proud mom of one, to her son Sly, but she was thrust into single motherhood, and it turned her world upside down. But in 2026, she’s letting everyone know all the details (and accompanied the powerful essay with a viral photoshoot).
In a new essay entitled “After becoming a single mom, I began compulsively dating in order to figure out what kind of woman I wanted to be” about navigating life as a single mother for The Cut, she posed topless while mimicking breastfeeding with a toy baby doll.
Not only is it a jaw-dropping photoshoot, but it’s a powerful one at that when you take in mind what she wrote.
For the essay, she talked about how she did compulsive dating after her divorce from Sebastian Bear-McClard, saying, “What I wanted was his attention: I wanted to feel a man’s desire and to be reminded that I was a sexual being, not just a mother of a toddler. The lame bar would have to do.”
She then discussed how the transition of single motherhood happened, saying: “It was a violent transition into a new reality of screaming baby on my aching tit and ring on my swollen finger. And then, in a time period that felt both instant and excruciatingly slow, my marriage collapsed. Six months after my son was born, my husband and I stopped having sex. Less than a year later, we separated.”
Ratajkowski discussed how she grew up thinking it was “crucial to avoid becoming a single mom. The term itself could be lodged as an insult. Having a child with the wrong man was the fastest way to ruin your life as a woman — it meant having no freedom, no choices, no emergency exit. All baggage and no security.”
Emily Ratajkowski at the Cymbiotika x Ulta Beauty Launch held at The Lillian on March 25, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
Gilbert Flores/Variety
She then discussed the ups and downs of life as a single mom before discussing what it was like to step into her lawyer’s office to move on with her life. The lawyer told her, “Most women don’t leave.”
“I left his office that day with an unexpected gift: a new kind of understanding of myself. Leaving my marriage wasn’t about seeking anyone’s attention or approval. It was the opposite. A hard choice that came with a lot of pain and at a great cost. Becoming a single mother changed the way people looked at me, exactly as I’d feared it would,” she said. “But it also allowed me to finally see myself. I wasn’t left; I left. I knew then that being able to leave, to say “no,” was the only real superpower I’d gained through divorce. I was brave. Really, actually brave.”
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity godparents.
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