Ratajkowski shares summer snapshots amid new chapter after divorce

Emily Ratajkowski posted a carousel of summer photographs to Instagram in early August, and among the usual vacation imagery—bikinis, beach lounging, sunset dinners—was a single frame that invited speculation: her hand reaching across a white tablecloth to hold the bandaged hand of someone she did not name or explain.

The 35-year-old model captioned the collection simply, spelling out the month in three languages: Spanish, Greek, English. The photos themselves told a straightforward summer story. There was a polka-dot navy bikini shot in what looked like a coastal home, her hair loose, the camera close. There was the orange-and-black patterned swimsuit, the pink drink under the black umbrella, the lounge chair with its yellow-and-white striped towel. There was the selfie taken at arm's length, the late-day light, the rows of empty beach chairs. And then the dinner: dark brown halter top, oceanfront table, the sun dropping behind a line of trees, and that unidentified hand, wrapped in gauze, held gently across the table.

The timing of the post arrived in the middle of a larger conversation Ratajkowski had been having publicly about her life. Weeks earlier, in June, she had published an essay in The Cut titled "Mother F---er," a raw account of her divorce from film producer Sebastian Bear-McClard and what came after. They had married in 2018, had a son—Sylvester Apollo, called Sly—in March 2021, and by September 2022 she had filed for divorce. Now, at 35, she was raising the five-year-old primarily alone in New York City, and she was writing about it.

In the essay, Ratajkowski described the moment her marriage collapsed as feeling both instant and impossibly slow. She wrote about a fear she had carried since childhood: the terror of becoming a single mother, a term she had learned early could be weaponized as an insult. After the separation, she threw herself into dating, but she built walls around her time with Sly. No sleepovers. Never miss bedtime. No matter how many martinis, she would be dressed and out the door by six in the morning to relieve the sitter and hear her son's voice calling for her.

What shifted her perspective, she wrote, came during a visit to her lawyer's office. The attorney told her about women who stayed in harmful marriages even after deciding to leave. "You should be proud of yourself," he said. "Most women don't leave." Ratajkowski realized then that leaving had nothing to do with seeking anyone's approval. She had not been left. She had left. The only superpower divorce had given her, she concluded, was the ability to say no. She was brave. Actually, really brave.

The essay provoked divided reactions online. Some readers dismissed her as disconnected from the actual struggles of single mothers. Others found her candor about divorce, dating, and motherhood worth hearing. Meanwhile, Ratajkowski continued building her fashion presence. She was announced as a face of Abercrombie & Fitch's fall 2026 denim campaign, sharing the role with model Paloma Elsesser and New York Giants players Jaxson Dart and Malik Nabers. In an interview with Elle, she explained that she had stopped chasing trends. What mattered now was how clothes made her feel, whether they fit into her actual life, whether they let her feel like herself. New York, she said, had always been her favorite city to get dressed in—a place where everyone knew they were being watched but also had the real business of their days to attend to. There was something deeply stylish about practicality mixed with who you actually were.