Cameron Monaghan teases his Shameless character’s relationship in the upcoming tenth season.

Monaghan stars as openly gay Ian Gallagher in the US remake of the hit Channel 4 series and after eight years on the show, he left with no intention of returning.

However, he was persuaded to come back for the tenth series by showrunner John Wells but the actor – who has recently finished starring in Gotham – had one condition upon returning.

He wanted to explore his character to explore his relationship with Mickey Milkovich, played by Noel Fisher.

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly with his co-star Fisher, Monaghan said: “That was something that felt worth going back to.

“There’s still a lot of story to tell. We’ve never really had these characters just together in a somewhat stable environment for very long, so that’s been fun to explore.”

The couple – who like the British version – have had a turbulent relationship but they were reunited in prison but by the tenth season, the couple’s ‘honeymoon’ period has come to an end.

Fisher added: “It turns out that living in cramped quarters without much break from one another is not necessarily all that conducive to a healthy relationship.

“It’s basically living together in the worst studio apartment you can possibly imagine.”

Monaghan then shares: “Like any romantic relationship, you need a healthy level of distance and separation, and that’s something not afforded to them.

“They’re in a challenging place and trying to work through their issues.

“Now, the way that people work through their issues on Shameless tends to be pretty volatile. I won’t exactly say how they work on solving them, but I will say it involves shivs and stabbings.”