Meet The Bear and Fantastic Four star Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s wife, Yelena Yemchuk: she’s a critically acclaimed photographer known for her work with The Smashing Pumpkins and documenting the Russia-Ukraine war
Ukrainian-born Yemchuk relocated to the United States as a child and pursued art and photography, and she shares two daughters with the Marvel actor
What some may not have realised, however, is that Yemchuk is a respected artist in her own right, known for photography and painting deeply rooted in her experience as a Ukrainian-American. Here’s what you need to know about her and her relationship with the Hollywood actor.
Yemchuk and Moss-Bachrach met in the 1990s
During a joint interview the couple did with The New Yorker in 2022, they first crossed paths at a friend’s dinner party in the 1990s while both were involved in other relationships.
“When I saw Ebon, I was, like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s cute. Who is this guy?’” Yemchuk shared. “My friend was like, ‘Forget it, he has a girlfriend and he’s an actor.’ And I was, like, ‘Ugh!’ When you think of an actor as a boyfriend, that’s not where you want to go. They just seem like such a pain in the ass.”
About a year and a half later, they began dating and have been together ever since. They now have two daughters: Sasha, born in 2007, and Maribelle, born in 2010, and also have a cat named Sonny. “As in Sonny Corleone [from The Godfather] or Sonny from Dog Day Afternoon,” Moss-Bachrach said in an interview with Mr Porter.
Moss-Bachrach told Sharp magazine that despite both having busy creative careers, the couple work hard to balance their needs and the children’s. “For example, I’ve been in Chicago for the last three months, and as this work is winding down, she has the potential to do more on her end,” he explained. “This is her time.”
Yemchuk is a Ukrainian-American photographer
Born in Kyiv in 1970, Yemchuk immigrated to the United States at the age of 11, following a completely different career path from her parents – her father was an athlete and her mother was a teacher. When her father gave her a 35mm Minolta camera for her fourteenth birthday, Yemchuk fell in love with photography. Her relatives, who loved photography and art, also reportedly had a subtle influence on her.