Rewinding history for Ethma shippers. Fans think Emma Chamberlain finally broke silence about her rumored relationship with fellow YouTuber Ethan Dolan.
Ethan and Emma first met in 2018 as young YouTubers and formed the Sister Squad with Ethan’s twin Grayson and makeup influencer James Charles. The two have had a big “will they, won’t they” situation going on for years that fans always had an eye for. They’ve publicly denied the rumors, but nonetheless hinted that something more that friendship was going on. When they left a SoulCycle class together, Emma told a reporter when asked if they were dating, “I don’t know if that’s a good question to ask. If I hadn’t said it yet, why would I say it now?”
Emma, in particular, loves to be private about her dating life. “Breakups alone are absolutely the most f*cking awful thing that exist,” she told W Magazine in 2018. “Why would you want other people to be heartbroken with you? I can’t imagine that. And also, I don’t like seeing other people’s relationships. It’s boring and it’s gross.”
Why did Emma Chamberlain and Ethan Dolan break up?
While it hasn’t been confirmed that Emma Chamberlain and Ethan Dolan dated, the podcast host recently opened up about her first love when she was 17—which would match with the timeline with Ethan. “I truly loved this person and thought they were my soulmate,” she said on a January 2 episode of her podcast Anything Goes. She talked about the relationship that devolved into a situationship.
She thought that the relationship lasted a lifetime—even though it only went on for nine months. When they broke up, she was left devastated. “When things are new psychologically, time moves slower,” she explained. “I thought I was going to die. I didn’t stop crying for two weeks.”
Emma tried to patch things up, but the relationship went even more south. “He didn’t want to date me again,” Emma recalled. “He was clear he didn’t want to be exclusive, and I couldn’t handle that emotionally.”
She tried to maintain a platonic relationship with the guy. “We’d hook up, then I’d find out he was seeing someone else, and I’d get crushed all over again,” she said. She went down a spiral, and like with every girl who’s been in a debilitating situationship, had the occasional meltdown. One meltdown in particular was a wake-up call. When he didn’t text her back, she threw her phone against the wall and realized that everything was worth more than this man. “If this was my soulmate, it wouldn’t lead me to that point,” she said. So true!
Fans, understandably, went online to react about the news. “finding out what happened between Ethan Dolan and Emma Chamberlain during 2018 was NOT on my bingo card for 2025 wtf,” one fan wrote. Another fan wrote, “emma chamberlains podcast talking about and her first big heartbreak hurts my soul cause that’s such a canon event but I also was so obsessed with ethan dolan it hurts to like get the reality check that he’s just a guy.” Whether the guy is Ethan Dolan or not, relatable queen Emma Chamberlain lays down how it was such a life lesson for her not to revolve her whole entire life around a man who won’t treat you right.
