Well, well, well. Looks like one of Washington's most talked about power couples has been done for a LOT longer than anyone realized.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her longtime fiancé Riley Roberts have broken up, and according to a new report, the split apparently happened roughly two years ago. The bombshell dropped courtesy of TMZ just one day after the congresswoman went public about her decision to freeze her eggs. Talk about timing!
Let's rewind the tape on this love story. AOC, now 36, and Roberts, a web developer with Arizona roots, crossed paths as 19 year old undergrads at Boston University. They met at a weekly campus gathering called "Coffee & Conversations" where students would hash out everything from geopolitics to pop culture. College sweethearts! How adorable. They dated all through school but went their separate ways after graduating, with Roberts heading back out West while AOC stayed on the East Coast.
Fast forward to around 2015 when cupid struck again and the two rekindled their romance. Roberts relocated to New York, and they shared a place in the Bronx during her meteoric political ascent, including that jaw dropping 2018 primary upset that rocketed her into Congress as one of its youngest members ever.
The engagement came in April 2022 during a trip to her family's hometown in Puerto Rico. At the time, AOC told media outlets they were "taking some space to savor" the moment before jumping into wedding planning. Turns out they were savoring a whole lot of space.
Here's where it gets juicy. Puck News Chief Washington Correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell revealed that a credible Capitol Hill source had informed her about 18 months prior that the engagement was off. She also pointed out that AOC had ditched her engagement ring months before that conversation even took place. On top of that, there had been virtually zero public sightings of the pair together in recent memory. Congressional insiders told TMZ it "felt like ages" since anyone spotted them side by side.
"AOC and Roberts broke up about two years ago. Perhaps that's why she's freezing her eggs," Caldwell wrote in her own social media post. Savage observation!
And about those eggs. Just days before this breakup news surfaced, AOC posted a string of Instagram videos announcing she had started the egg freezing process. She called it a way to feel "more in control" of her life, described the procedure as "very daunting," and acknowledged there was "political risk" in sharing such intimate reproductive details publicly. She also made clear she wasn't worried about people drawing conclusions. "If people want to make assumptions about my decision, let them," she declared.
Neither AOC nor Roberts has confirmed or denied anything. Her office offered zero comment when pressed by reporters.
The congresswoman has always guarded her personal life pretty closely. But in Washington, nothing stays secret forever. The receipts always come out eventually.
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