Sarah Shahi has confirmed that she and Adam Demos, her co-star on Netflix’s Sex/Life, have broken up after about five years together. The split was first reported in spring 2025. Shahi addressed it herself for the first time in a Us Weekly interview published Jan. 2, 2026, and went into more detail on a podcast in February.
What Shahi said
“There was an element of the relationship that people really felt belonged to them, which was very sweet and heart-warming,” Shahi, then 45, told Us Weekly. “The flip to that is when things end, you feel like you’re going through it twice. You’re going through it emotionally on a personal level, and then you’re going through it again on a much bigger level.”
In the same interview, she described the dating world as “a zoo.” “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time,” she said, according to Daily Mail and Just Jared.
On the Feb. 10, 2026, episode of Kristin Cavallari’s “Let’s Be Honest” podcast, Shahi said the two “broke up last year.” She described the end as amicable: “I think he’s an incredible human and our ending had no table flipping or any anger.” She called it a case of “two people whose future stopped rhyming,” Us Weekly reported.
She also pointed to family life. “When you have kids it’s hard to build a life when you have children unless the person truly, truly, truly wants that as well,” she said, adding that it was “not a comment on him but more about the ways that I show up as a parent.” Shahi shares three children with her ex-husband, actor Steve Howey. Their divorce was finalized in 2021.
How the relationship started
Shahi and Demos, an Australian actor, met on the set of Sex/Life in 2020. She played Billie Connelly and he played Brad Simon, her character’s former lover. At the time, Shahi was separated from Howey. The relationship continued after Netflix ended the series in 2023. As recently as February 2025, Shahi told The Hollywood Reporter she would like to work with Demos again. The split was reported about two months later. Sources told Page Six at the time that Shahi ended the relationship, Daily Mail noted. Neither Shahi nor Demos has confirmed that account.
What’s next
Shahi returned for season 2 of Hulu’s Paradise, which Hulu scheduled for February 2026, Just Jared reported. Demos has not publicly commented on the breakup in any of the coverage we reviewed.
This article was updated on Nov. 14, 2026. An earlier version included a quote attributed to Shahi that we could not verify. It has been removed.
Sources
- Us Weekly, “Why Did Sex/Life’s Sarah Shahi, Adam Demos Split? Breakup Explained” and “Sarah Shahi Finally Reveals What Led to Adam Demos Split After Sex/Life,” 2026.
- E! News, “Sarah Shahi Confirms Breakup with Sex/Life Costar Adam Demos,” January 2026.
- Just Jared, “Sarah Shahi Confirms Split from ‘Sex/Life’ Co-Star Adam Demos,” Jan. 2, 2026.
- Daily Mail, “Sarah Shahi confirms split from Sex/Life co-star Adam Demos after five years,” January 2026.
