Exclusive: Leslie Fremar on Being the Real Emily In 'The Devil Wears Prada'
The Run-Through with Vogue
Vogue
4.1 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The truth is finally revealed! After 20+ years, stylist Leslie Fremar has gone on record to say that she is the inspiration behind Emily from The Devil Wears Prada. Back in 1999, she was the one who hired writer Lauren Weisberger to be Anna Wintour's assistant and she even remembers being the one to say "a million girls would kill for this job".
On this episode of The Run-Through with Vogue, hear Leslie tell the story of how she became first assistant to Anna Wintour after first saying no, the real story behind the Harry Potter manuscript, and whether or not she's spoken to Lauren Weisberger all these years later.
The Run-Through with Vogue is your go-to podcast where fashion meets culture. Hosted by Chloe Malle, Head of Editorial Content, Vogue U.S.; Chioma Nnadi, Head of British Vogue; and Nicole Phelps, Director of Vogue Runway, each episode features the latest fashion news and exclusive designer and celebrity interviews.
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| 0:00.0 | This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mal and I am so excited for this extremely important, |
| 0:09.3 | exclusive podcast with Leslie Fremar, The Real Emily, Revealed. |
| 0:17.7 | Leslie, I'm so excited about this. We've all been talking about this for a few weeks, and it just means a lot to me and the podcast that you're coming on because I was really touched when we spoke on the phone and you shared that this had just been something that you had not talked about for a while, and I just have a lot of questions. |
| 0:40.4 | I don't think I've ever actually really talked about it. |
| 0:43.5 | Interesting. |
| 0:44.6 | Why are you open to talking about this now, and why do you think people are so fascinated by this story of who these characters really are? |
| 0:52.8 | I think, I don't know, I think at the time, 20 years ago, the fashion industry was very |
| 0:57.5 | hush-hush, and it was like an inner circle type situation. |
| 1:03.8 | And I feel like when she wrote the book, no one really knew much about it because everyone, |
| 1:10.6 | not that it was secretive, but it was just |
| 1:12.6 | hard to break in and exclusive. It was less, it was more insular. Yeah, very. So I think at that |
| 1:20.7 | time, people found that really interesting to get a real insider view because no one, frankly, |
| 1:27.3 | would have exposed it quite like that. So I think |
| 1:31.5 | that that was really interesting. I think the movie did a great job at kind of fictionalizing it |
| 1:37.2 | and making it a little bit more fun than maybe it actually is or was. |
| 1:49.3 | But I quite enjoyed the movie, you know, as entertainment. |
| 1:54.9 | So I think that people see it, the fashion industry maybe as entertainment. |
| 1:55.7 | I don't know. |
| 2:19.2 | You are now 25 years later, an extremely successful stylist. You've styled Charlize Theron for a long time, many other people. I wanted to talk a bit about your early career in fashion, but I also want to talk about what is the most exciting part of your current job and what you love to do the most. Are you dressing anyone for the Met Gala, doing anything for Ken? I'm actually not this year. I find in my career, I've, I don't want to say slow down, |
| 2:27.7 | but I've really tightened up the jobs that I do now, 25 years later. Just, you know, I have kids and a busy family and just |
| 2:36.6 | trying to balance it all. And I think when I was really in the height and thick of the whole thing, |
| 2:41.6 | I was never home and I was always on a plane and traveling and flying. So personally, I have |
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