New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is engaged to be married. The congresswoman confirmed Thursday (May 19) that her and her longtime boyfriend, Riley Roberts, got engaged last month in her family’s hometown in Puerto Rico.
“It’s true!” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Thank you all for the well wishes.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that she had no other details about their future wedding and that her and Roberts were “taking some space to savor this time before diving into planning.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts met when they were both students at Boston University in 2011. In 2018, he was referred to as “an easygoing redhead” in a profile that Vogue magazine published about Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. Roberts, who works as a web developer, is originally from Boston. After graduating from Boston University, he moved to Arizona to be with Ocasio-Cortez.
Although the couple has kept their relationship over the years lowkey, Roberts has been a supportive partner throughout Ocasio-Cortez’s rise in the Democratic Party. He’s even sat with his significant other once to answer questions live on her Instagram page. During the chat, he was asked about how he combats racism as a white man.
“I think it’s helpful and important to talk to other white people about racism, and I think a lot of people, they don’t want to be racist,” Roberts said. “They don’t think that they’re racist, but they also don’t know some of the things they believe or say are and can be racist.”
The last Instagram post on Ocasio-Cortez’s profile of the couple came on Christmas Day last year when they posted a short video sitting in front of their Christmas tree in matching black and red pajamas with their French bulldog.
View this post on Instagram