Celebrity / TV

'Shameless' fans loved Lip and Mandy's rough relationship — and their on-screen chemistry was helped by the actors' real-life relationship.

Published on March 19, 2021

Shameless is an American comedy-drama depicting the life of a blended family living in poverty in Chicago. Shameless covers everything from addiction to mental illness, and nearly anything else one can think of in terms of a dysfunctional family. The cast is filled with a wide variety of incredible actors, and the show has captured the hearts of many fans due to its raw emotion and complicated relationships. One such complicated relationship is the one between Mandy and Lip at the start of the show. 

Mandy and Lip in Shameless

Phillip “Lip” Gallagher (played by Jeremy Allen White) is one of the most beloved characters on Shameless due to his intelligence and overall good-natured demeanor. Although he has incredible academic aptitude, he consistently makes poor choices that undermine his own interests. Many of those poor choices involve his love interests and romantic relationships. In the early seasons of the show, Lip dates Mandy Milkovich (played by Emma Greenwell). 

Their relationship is full of sharp ups and downs and complicated situations, leading many fans to wonder if they would end up together or break up for good. Both actors played their roles spectacularly, and their onscreen chemistry is undeniable. The relationship between Lip and Mandy officially ended when Mandy hits another potential love interest of Lip’s with a car at the end of season 3. The two characters run into each other a few times throughout the next few seasons, but they never officially get back together. 

How long were Emma Greenwell and Jeremy Allen White together?

Fans often like to speculate that the actors playing on-screen romances are romantically involved in real life. It turns out that Emma Greenwell and Jeremy Allen White did date for a few years after meeting on the set of Shameless, according to Screen Rant. The couple stayed out of the spotlight for the most part, though Greenwell did post a few photos of them together on Instagram over the years. The last Instagram post of them together from Greenwell was in 2014. 

It was never revealed exactly when or why the couple split, but both actors have appeared to move on. White married actor Addison Timlin in 2019, and they have two daughters together. According to IMDb, Timlin and White worked together in a 2008 movie called AfterSchool together. They had supposedly been friends ever since. Greenwell’s Instagram showed that she was dating Joe Alexander in 2019, though not much is known about him or their relationship as a whole. 

Did Greenwell leave the show due to their real-life breakup?

When Allen and Greenwell split, many people wondered exactly what happened between the two. Since Allen has known his now-wife Addison Timlin since 2008, many speculations of infidelity while he was officially with Greenwell have floated to the surface. If true, it would make for a messy breakup and a justifiable reason why Greenwell would want to leave the set of Shameless.

Greenwell’s character Mandy departs the show in season 6, which aired in 2016. Reportedly, Allen and Timlin have been together since before 2017. Interestingly, they starred in the movie Chasing You together, which came out in 2017. While fans have thought Mandy’s character left the show due to behind-the-scenes romances, there’s no evidence her character was written out for this reason — which makes sense, because Mandy briefly reappears later in the series.

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