The Real Reason Steve Howey Is Getting Divorced

Shameless star Steve Howey and L Word alum Sarah Shahi announced their divorce on June 29, 2020, 11 years after they tied the knot in 2009. The exes share three kids — William Wolf, who was born in July 2009, and twins Violet Moon and Knox Blue, who they welcomed in 2015.

Howey, who starred as Van Montgomery on Reba for six years, previously described how the two managed to stay close amid their many responsibilities as parents."It can be overwhelming," the actor told People in 2016. "But Sarah and I work really hard now to schedule workout time together. Or we'll run to the kitchen and do a tequila shot really fast — just do something together. Then it's right back into the playroom or changing a diaper."

As for Shahi, she chatted with Access Hollywood in July 2019 and joked about how they keep the spark alive. That interview wasn't long ago, so how did Shahi and Howey go from tequila shots and a passionate love life to divorce? We reveal the truth about their split below.

Steve Howey and Sarah Shahi met in 2004 when Shahi had a guest appearance on Reba, per CBS. Five years later, they got married and welcomed their first child together, William Wolf. Then came their adorable twins in 2015.

Alas, the couple's marriage has come to an end, but the bright side is that these two will always be there for their kids first. "As we enter into this new phase of our lives, our priority will remain co-parenting our children with so much love, mutual respect and friendship," they told Us Weekly in a joint statement. "And though our relationship is changing, we are committed to continuing our lives as a loving family."

As Us Weekly noted, Shahi filed for divorce in May 2020, citing "irreconcilable differences." The two separated in April 2020, per court docs. Howey and Shahi didn't elaborate on why they split, saying they "are so grateful for the past 10 years together and proud of our children that we've raised."

One possibility for the breakup? Maybe work schedules got in the way. Howey has been busy filming the last season of Shameless, while Shahi has starred in various projects throughout the years, including The Rookie, Persons of Interest, and Sex/Life for Netflix.

It seems like their work schedules really might have been the thing to break the couple up. Per a 2016 interview Steve Howey did with Talk Nerdy To Us, that struggle actually helped him with his acting. Howey said at the time, "I helped the storyline with Kev because of my own experience. My wife and I were like any other couple. All of our time was for each other. We would go on vacation, we'd have ice cream, we'd go to a movie, we'd do whatever we wanted to do. And then when we had the kids, it was really tough, all of that went away."

He added, "And also we're both working actors, so we were very tired, and when we'd come back, if there was any energy left it was for the kids, and not for each other. So we experienced that, I mean it almost broke us up. We didn't really understand why, we just weren't liking each other and we realized that things weren't the same and it was really messed up. Because it was hard and we weren't used to it." Since working so much "almost" broke them up in the past, it's very possible it posed a long-term strain on their love life.

It's always sad when a couple starts to drift away from each other. Likely even worse when you have to go to work and play out your own marital issues on camera with your TV wife. In 2016, Steve Howey told Talk Nerdy With Us that's exactly what he had to do during off-time in his marriage on the set of Shameless.

When his character Kevin had babies with his partner Veronica, things got a little out of whack for the normally very close couple. Same thing apparently happened with Howey and his now ex-wife Sarah Shahi off-screen. He continued in the interview, "I learned from a lot of experiences with my own family. So, when Veronica last season is saying, you know, 'we need to talk about us,' and Kev's like 'the babies are crying,' and she's like 'just let them cry, we need to talk.' There was a lot of that in my own life so I think it wasn't just a scene, it was personal."

Howey said, "As an actor, you don't have to have the experience of the character, obviously. You don't have to murder somebody to know what it's like to murder somebody in the scene. You can guess as much as you can, but for that I knew exactly what they were talking about." Kinda sad, right?

Whatever might have happened, we wish both Howey and Shahi the best going forward.

Since announcing her divorce from "Shameless" star Steve Howey in the summer of 2020, Sarah Shahi has reportedly been dating her co-star from Netflix's "Sex/Life," Adam Demos. They met on the set of the show, which was filmed in August 2020, just a month after her divorce went public. 

She told People that the spark was there from the instant she saw him, which is not surprising given how intense their chemistry is onscreen, too. Shahi said of seeing him in the room, "I said, 'Well, that's a tall drink of water.' When I first met Adam, I was really blown away with him. We met in the makeup trailer and we just got on instantly."

Shahi has been very public about their romance, going as far as to post cutesy messages to her boo on Instagram. In June 2021, for example, she captioned a pic, saying that she wasn't sure how the two found each other. "But I do know I met my soulmate. I do know I found my forever. I do know I've never loved deeper, harder, more ferociously. I do know I'm overly grateful for him. I do know I've loved him for a thousand lifetimes before and will love him for a thousand lifetimes more," she added. If Shahi has moved on already, what about her ex, Howey? 

Although they announced their divorce in May 2020, it wasn't finalized until April of the next year, per Us Weekly. In that time, Sarah Shahi had moved on with her co-star, Adam Demos, but it seems like Steve Howey is still single. Or at least, he's not going public with any relationship just yet. 

In their divorce announcement, both Shahi and Howey vowed to remain close for their kiddos: William Wolf, Violet Moon, and Knox Blue. Although kids are the primary focus of her life, Shahi also told Oprah Daily that something changed in her after becoming a mom. And it helped her relate to her "Sex/Life" character. 

"There's a lot about Billie that I could relate to. I'm a mother of three kids. Something happens, once you're in a long-term relationship or become a parent — you act as if those desires that you felt back in the day before you have kids, you repress them," she said. That seems to have manifested itself in her new relationship. Hopefully, Howey will find a new chapter soon, too.