It's been just about one year now since Steve Howey bowed out of the biggest role of his career - as Kevin 'Kev' Ball on Showtime's acclaimed comedy-drama, Shameless. The John Wells series had a ten-year run on the premium cable channel, leading up to its finale on April 11, 2021.
In the 12 months since, Howey has not taken on any other TV or film roles that has gone on to be released yet, although he is set to feature in J.J. Perry's upcoming movie, Day Shift, which also stars Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, among others.
Instead of his work, a lot of the news surrounding Howey's life in the last year has been about his divorce from ex-wife Sarah Shahi, which was finalized in January last year. The pair had been officially married for about 12 years and even had three kids together.
They first separated in 2020, when he filed for divorce in May, with that process being completed about half a year later. Howey and Shahi have remained amicable about their split, at least in public.
We take a look at what caused the two to go their different ways.
Who Is Steve Howey's Ex, Sarah Shahi, And What Does She Do?
Sarah Shahi is a Texan-born actress of Iranian and Spanish descent, who originally started her showbiz career as a model. The name Sarah Shahi is her professional moniker, having been given the Farsi name Aahoo Jahansouzshahi at birth.
Shahi revealed that she was often teased by her age-mates about her name when she was little. While in second grade, she heard a song called Sarah and decided to adopt it as her secondary name.
When she was 8, her parents started to enlist her beauty pageants, which molded her love for modeling, one that she pursued well into adulthood. She decided to start dipping her feet into acting while she was still a model, and found some gigs working as an extra on various screen productions in L.A.
Her first ever major role was in the J.J. Abrams sci-fi action thriller series Alias, where she played a character called Jenny for a story arc spanning seven episodes. Since then, Shahi has gone on to enjoy more central roles in The L-Word, Fairly Legal and Person of Interest.
How Did Sarah Shahi And Steve Howey Meet?
After her short stint on Alias, Sarah Shahi continued landing bit-part roles in different movies and TV shows. She featured in single episodes of Frasier, and ER, and she also landed a three-episode part on Dawson's Creek.
In 2004, she was cast in the sitcom Reba on The CW, where Steve Howey played a main role as Van Montgomery. It was on this set that the two future lovebirds first met, with Shahi appearing in one episode that year and then returning for another in 2007.
In between those two cameos, Shahi had officially begun going out with Howey, and the pair were engaged in 2008. On February 7 of the following year, they walked down the aisle in a ceremony that was held in Las Vegas.
A few months later, they welcomed their first baby - a boy who they named William Wolf. In March 2015, they added two more children to their family, when their twins Violet Moon and Knox Blue were born.
Trouble began to brew in paradise a few years later, leading up to Howey's application for divorce in 2020.
Why Did Steve Howey File For Divorce From Sarah Shahi?
Steve Howey and Sarah Shahi tried to keep most elements of their relationship private, and have not been outspoken about their split since it happened, either.
The actor did sit for an interview with Talk Nerdy With Us in 2016, where he hinted that their busy schedules were mostly to blame for the death of their spark. It all started to pile on when their children were born.
"When we had the kids, it was really tough," Howey said. "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."
When their divorce was finally granted in January 2021, the court gave them shared custody of their three children. Howey was also ordered to pay $305,000 to Shahi, on top of other assets that were shared between them.
In light of this, Shahi is now estimated to be worth around $3 million, while Howey's total wealth is valued at around $2 million.