Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quietly split with her fiancé, Riley Roberts, well before she began freezing her eggs, according to reports.
The longtime couple called off their engagement almost two years ago, according to Leigh Ann Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent at Puck. TMZ also confirmed their breakup late Tuesday, citing multiple sources on Capitol Hill.
“AOC stopped wearing her engagement ring several months before that,” Caldwell wrote on X. “There have been no public photos of her and Riley together in recent history.”
The progressive New York Democrat first met Roberts when they both 19-year-old undergrads at Boston University. They connected during a weekly debate event and quickly sparked a relationship that lasted throughout their college years, according to the biography “Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC.” Despite breaking up after graduation, they eventually found their way back to each other and reignited their romance several years later.
The couple was most recently photographed together publicly at the 2021 Met Gala, according to TMZ. Months later, in May 2022, the congresswoman confirmed that she and Roberts were engaged.
“I feel like I won the men lottery in my life,” Ocasio-Cortez told GQ at the time.
Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Roberts has commented on the relationship publicly, and the exact date of the breakup is unknown. The reason for their split was also unclear, but the news comes after AOC took to Instagram and told her followers she has decided to begin freezing her eggs at the age of 36.
“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez said, revealing to followers that she has long been saving up for the procedure.
“As women in general, we are not taught about our bodies, we are not prepared for our own lives,” she continued, “whether that is in puberty, whether that is in pregnancy, whether that is in perimenopause, menopause, whether that is in so many different aspects of our lives.”