The Untold Truth Of Emily Ratajkowski
Most people first saw Emily Ratajkowski — a whole lot of Emily Ratajkowski — dancing alongside Pharrell, Robin Thicke and T.I. in the infectious "Blurred Lines" video. There were two versions of the clip: one featuring a skimpily attired Ratajkowski, and an NSFW version in which she wears nothing but a flesh-colored thong and a pair of sneakers.
Since then, fans have come to know the multitalented model, actor and entrepreneur even better, discovering that she's far from shy about sharing her opinions on hot-button issues ranging from female sexuality to reproductive rights. Meanwhile, in fall 2020, Ratajkowski — who wed actor/producer Sebastian Bear-McClard in 2018 after a whirlwind courtship — announced the couple were expecting their first child.
There's no doubt that she'll bring the same kind of feminist focus to motherhood that she's demonstrated throughout her career. Yet all that is just scratching the surface of what she's accomplished in a relatively short period of time. To find out even more, read on to discover the untold truth of Emily Ratajkowski.
Remember when Emily Ratajkowski was Gibby's girlfriend?
Emily Ratajkowski was pretty much unknown when she came to public attention in the racy Blurred Lines video. However, she may have seemed familiar to viewers of Nickelodeon comedy iCarly. As Ratajkowski's IMDb profile noted, she appeared on some episodes of the series when she was still in her teens. "I played Gibby's girlfriend," she said in an interview with Rolling Stone; Gibby, for the uninformed, was the nerdy pal of titular Carly (Miranda Cosgrove) and BFF Sam (Jennette McCurdy).
"It was my first and only acting job," Ratajkowski added, explaining why she had no frame of reference for the show she was appearing in. "I didn't grow up with TV, so I didn't even know what the show was when I auditioned," she explained. "I only did two episodes, so I was just on set about two weeks."
Unfortunately, a subsequent foray into television proved far less successful. In 2018, reported Variety, Ratajkowski was cast in an NBC sitcom pilot called Bright Futures, headlined by YouTube sensation Lilly Singh. Never heard of Bright Futures? Nobody has, mainly because the network decided not to pick it up.
Maybe don't mention *that* video to Emily Ratajkowski
In that same interview with Rolling Stone, Emily Ratajkowski explained how she came to dance topless with a fully clothed Robin Thicke in the 2013 "Blurred Lines" uncensored music video (and slightly less naked in the censored version). "On paper it sounded pretty crazy," she said of the offer her agent sent her, which she initially turned down. It wasn't until the video's director, Diana Martel, asked to meet in person that she agreed to do it. "Diana talked about the marching, and the playful energy of the whole thing," she said. "It was just completely ridiculous, and so much fun. The whole thing is supposed to be silly. Lots of people don't catch that. They'll tweet me and say, 'I like the video, but what the hell is that dog doing there?' I mean, the whole thing is random."
While she conceded that "Blurred Lines" certainly helped her career, in 2015 she told InStyle UK (via Just Jared) that it had become "the bane of my existence. When anyone comes up to me about 'Blurred Lines,' I'm like, are we seriously talking about a video from three years ago?"
Emily Ratajkowski embraced Blurred Lines controversy
Emily Ratajkowski welcomed controversy over her near-nakedness in the "Blurred Lines" video, which allowed her a platform to share her views. "Anything that's in pop culture and involves naked women and dressed men should be criticized or at least inspected, so I felt glad that it was criticized, because it gave me an opportunity to say the things that I felt about feminism today and about women in general in pop culture," she explained in an interview with Ocean Drive.
According to Ratajkowski, discussion about the video allowed her to open the door to a larger conversation with far wider implications. "We're at an interesting time where women have been told to take the pill is cool, to sleep with whomever you want, or wear what you want," she added. "But if you're naked, it can be offensive or sexist in some way. That's the last step our culture needs to deal with."
The nude female body, she believes, is something that "should be embraced and celebrated, and there's nothing wrong with being comfortable in your own skin. If anything, it can be really beautiful."
Emily Ratajkowski is a Planned Parenthood spokesperson
Emily Ratajkowski is on a mission to help women become as comfortable with their sexuality as she is. That's a big reason why she recorded a two-part PSA for Planned Parenthood, focusing on birth control and safe sex. Her goal, she told Refinery29, is to remove the stigma of what she says is "still a taboo issue." Personally, she added, "I could have used more examples growing up, especially coming into my own sexuality, of women who are in the public eye that are comfortable and not afraid of being associated with that issue."
Once she found herself with her own platform as a celebrity, she jumped at the opportunity to become one of those examples, with aspirations of inspiring other young women.
"Celebrating and finding a joy in my sexuality has empowered me, personally and professionally," she explained. "I've spent my life feeling unashamed of my womanhood and confident in myself, and that has made navigating life less complicated in a misogynistic society, in my industry, and in my relationships with men and my friendships with other women."
A powerful essay on body shaming by Emily Ratajkowski
Emily Ratajkowski garnered some serious attention with a 2016 essay she wrote for Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter website, sharing her own personal journey about how discovering empowerment through her sexuality. In the piece, she writes of the nickname her father gave her — "baby woman" — describing herself as "a 12-year-old with D-cup breasts who still woke up in the night and asked her mom to come and sleep in her room."
As a preteen with a body far more developed than most girls her age, Ratajkowski found herself constantly cajoled and cautioned not to wear clothing deemed provocative. In fact, she admitted she still hears those voices in her head, "reminding me not to send the wrong message," all those years later. "The implication is that to be sexual is to be trashy because being sexy means playing into men's desires," she wrote.
However, that attitude is something that she came to rebel against, choosing instead to embrace her sexuality head on. "To me, 'sexy' is a kind of beauty, a kind of self-expression, one that is to be celebrated, one that is wonderfully female," she added.
A nude Instagram pic led to an attack from Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan is decidedly not a fan of Emily Ratajkowski, and the British media personality has gone to great lengths to criticize her every chance he gets. For example, when she shared a nude picture of herself on social media to draw attention to controversial anti-abortion legislation in Alabama, he responded by retweeting Ratajkowski's post and commenting, "Right message, ruined by such a dumb self-promoting photo."
Earlier that year, while critiquing her Met Gala outfit, he complained that her belly button looked like "a weird mass." This followed a 2017 comment he made while co-hosting Good Morning Britain, reported The Independent, when he dissed a pasta-themed photoshoot she'd shared on social media by calling her a "global bimbo" who "wants to take all her clothes off and then claim it's promoting feminism."
Ratajkowski issued a scathing Twitter response. Writing that she never claimed what she'd posted "was a feminist statement," she added, "But now it's worth saying that telling women what to do with their bodies & sexuality is actually just classic sexism. I can have opinions about feminism & also do sexy photo shoots k thanks."
Gloria Steinem got called out by Emily Ratajkowski
Emily Ratajkowski was a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders' failed presidential bid during the 2016 election, and told Marie Claire that her involvement came about by chance. "I was actually loudly talking about my political ideas one night and I happened to meet someone from his campaign who was able to connect me to them," she said.
She campaigned for Sanders at rallies and via social media, sharing an Instagram video praising the way Sanders "invigorates people and excites them, and brings together this movement."
However, Ratajkowski's support for Sanders' campaign put her at odds with a bona fide feminist icon when Gloria Steinem made an uncharacteristically sexist statement about the Vermont senator's female supporters. "When you're young, you're thinking, 'Where are the boys?' The boys are with Bernie," Steinem said during a Real Time with Bill Maher appearance, according to the New York Daily News. (She later apologized for her remarks, claiming she "misspoke.") Ratajkowski fired back during a Sanders rally, reported the Daily News. "I am a young woman, and um, well, just to make one thing clear: I'm here because I support Bernie Sanders, I'm not here for the boys," she declared.
Emily Ratajkowski was once honored as Model of the Year
In 2018, Emily Ratajkowski was named Model of the Year at the Daily Front Row's fourth annual Fashion Awards, reported PopSugar. Emphasizing what a force she'd become in fashion, Ratajkowski was also honored at the ceremony the following year, with Fashion Week Daily reporting that she'd won the Fashion Entrepreneur award for her brand, Inamorata. As the outlet pointed out, her brand was being lauded because it "has managed to garner seven-figure profits in less than two years from a single point of sale, without the need for paid marketing or outside partners."
Even though she'd been modeling since her teens, Ratajkowski admitted that level of acceptance from the fashion industry was something she hadn't anticipated — but happily enjoyed. "The attention from the fashion world is something that I didn't expect," she told Rolling Stone. "I've shot with [fashion photographer] Bruce Weber and met Karl Lagerfeld. Having that kind of attention is really exciting."
This Photoshop job didn't sit right with Emily Ratajkowski
Despite the outsized attention she's received from the fashion community, Emily Ratajkowski has also been known to bite the proverbial hand that feeds her when she believes a wrong has been committed. That was the case when she criticized French magazine Madame Figaro for retouching a cover shot of her.
Taking to Instagram, Ratajkowski posted a photo of the cover along with the original pic. The changes were subtle but noticeable, but a side-by-side comparison demonstrated that the size of her lips had been reduced, while her breasts were lifted.
"Everyone is uniquely beautiful in their own ways. We all have insecurities about the things that make us different from a typical ideal of beauty. I, like so many of us, try every day to work past those insecurities," she wrote in the caption. "I was extremely disappointed to see my lips and breasts altered in photoshop on this cover. I hope the fashion industry will finally learn to stop trying to stifle the things that make us unique and instead begin to celebrate individuality."
The unbearably cute story of Emily Ratajkowski's marriage
In January 2018, the New York Daily News reported that Emily Ratajkowski had moved out the Los Angeles apartment she shared with Jeff Magid, her boyfriend of three years. Just a month later, the Daily Mail published photos of her "cuddling up to hunky actor Sebastian Bear-McClard" on Valentine's Day. Later that month, the two were married.
Bear-McClard is an actor and producer, whose IMDb page lists a handful of minor acting roles and several producer credits. Among these is the 2019 Adam Sandler drama Uncut Gems, directed by siblings Josh and Benny Safdie. According to a 2014 report in Deadline, Bear-McClard and the Safdie brothers go way back; that year, the three joined forces with another partner to form their own production company, Elara Pictures.
While the notion of getting hitched after just a few weeks of dating is concerning, Ratajkowski insisted that she and her new husband met years before they tied the knot. "We knew each other for a long time before and he likes to joke 'yeah everyone thinks we got married quickly, but you vetted me for two years,'" she said during an appearance on now-defunct talk show Busy Tonight, via Brides.
Why Emily Ratajkowski won't reveal her baby's gender
In 2020, Emily Ratajkowski and husband Sebastian Bear-McClard shared some happy news: they were expecting their first child.
While awaiting the arrival of her baby, Ratajkowski saw an opportunity to share more of her feminist philosophy, specifically as it pertained to parents who choose not to learn the gender of a child until birth. She explained her reasoning in an essay she wrote for Vogue. "It occurs to me that as a younger person I'd almost automatically imagined myself having a daughter," she wrote, recalling how she use to fantasize about mothering "a smaller version of myself."
This, she said, forced her to confront her own deeply ingrained gender biases and generalizations, admitting that when pondering "who my child will be" she feels "surprisingly unbothered" by the question. "Instead of feeling afraid, I feel a new sense of peace," she continued. "I'm already learning from this person inside my body. I'm full of wonder."
Emily Ratajkowski has built up an impressive nest egg
Emily Ratajkowski has been working since childhood. Modeling and acting since her teens, it was appearing in music videos — particularly Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" — that resulted in her breakthrough, leading to roles in films ranging from director David Fincher's 2014 thriller Gone Girl to the Amy Schumer-starring comedy I Feel Pretty. According to Harper's Bazaar, Ratajkowski is also one of the 20 highest-paid models on Instagram; boasting 27 million followers, she commands an average of $26,500 for each sponsored post.
In addition, she also has her very own fashion brand, Inomorata Woman, initially launched in 2017 as a line of swimwear but subsequently expanded to include suits, lingerie, leisure wear, jewelry and more. Thanks to all those ventures, Ratajkowski has built up a comfortable little fortune for herself; according to Celebrity Net Worth, she's worth an impressive $8 million.
By all appearances, Ratajkowski has lived up to the kind of career she envisioned for herself during a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone. "Basically, I want to be successful in this industry so that down the line I can invest in other projects, like movies that I love or an artist or a photographer," she said. The sky's the limit, and there's nothing blurry about it.