A few days ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she was starting the process of freezing her eggs. AOC is 36 years old, and there has been a lot of commentary about all of it. Commentary about “why did she wait until now to freeze her eggs” and “if she wants kids, why didn’t she have them before now.” Well, about that. AOC had been with the same guy, Riley Roberts, since they were undergrads at Boston University. They’ve been together since they were 20/21, basically. They got engaged in 2021. But they never married and they never had kids. So after they broke up AOC decided to freeze her eggs.
There’s a reason Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t mentioning her fiancé Riley Roberts when she talks about freezing her eggs … TMZ has confirmed they broke up.
AOC and Riley actually split roughly two years ago, and called off their engagement, according to Puck’s Chief Washington Correspondent Leigh Ann Caldwell … who was first to report the couple’s demise.
Multiple sources on Capitol Hill tell TMZ, it’s felt like ages since the pair were seen together publicly. That’s not hyperbole … Riley and AOC were last photographed at 2021’s Met Gala.
About a year later, in May 2022, the congresswoman confirmed she and RR were engaged. While we’ve confirmed they’re dunzo, we can’t say for certain when the break-up went down.
As you know … AOC is freezing her eggs and documenting her journey, which she described as “very daunting”. She made zero mention of Riley during her first video about the process.
We reached out to AOC’s rep and they had no comment.
Do we actually believe that they broke up two years ago and we’re only finding out now? I do not. That’s because there are a lot of eyes on AOC, both good and bad. While she’s always done a great job of not putting her relationship out in the public sphere, I feel like we definitely would have heard about a split before now. It’s more than possible that they’ve spent the past two years in a bad place as a couple, but I just think the actual split happened somewhat recently. I hope she finds someone hot and political. Like, someone make a clone of Jon Ossoff (the real Ossoff is married to his doctor wife).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty Images.
-
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, gilt als Vordenkerin in der demokratischen Partei der USA, bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin mit Studenten zum Zustand der Politik in den USA und über die Rolle junger Menschen am 15.02.27 in Berlin.. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin *** Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, considered a thought leader in the US Democratic Party, in discussion at the TU Berlin with students on the state of politics in the USA and the role of young people on 15 02 27 in Berlin Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in discussion at the TU Berlin,Image: 1075436099, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no , Credit line: IMAGO/Avalon
-
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, gilt als Vordenkerin in der demokratischen Partei der USA, bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin mit Studenten zum Zustand der Politik in den USA und über die Rolle junger Menschen am 15.02.27 in Berlin.. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin *** Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, considered a thought leader in the US Democratic Party, in discussion at the TU Berlin with students on the state of politics in the USA and the role of young people on 15 02 27 in Berlin Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in discussion at the TU Berlin,Image: 1075406609, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no , Credit line: IMAGO/Avalon
-
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, gilt als Vordenkerin in der demokratischen Partei der USA, bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin mit Studenten zum Zustand der Politik in den USA und über die Rolle junger Menschen am 15.02.27 in Berlin.. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez bei Diskussion in der TU Berlin *** Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, considered a thought leader in the US Democratic Party, in discussion at the TU Berlin with students on the state of politics in the USA and the role of young people on 15 02 27 in Berlin Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in discussion at the TU Berlin,Image: 1075436065, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no , Credit line: IMAGO/Avalon
I do believe they broke up a while ago. I follow her on Insta. She started to gain a noticeable amount of weight, which made me think she was maybe trying IVF or something. Her SM presence also changed…she used to do lengthy explanations about Congress and then she just went away for what seemed like ages. Now she’s back with the egg freezing content but yes, I do think she went through something difficult.
Also, just to qualify my observation so it doesn’t come across like I monitor people’s weight, some godawful right-wing SM acct posted about AOC “gaining 50 lbs and why isn’t that news” or something to that extent. Which struck me as such a shitty thing to post about…seriously, when will people leave women alone? But when that was pointed out, I wondered if she was doing IVF since she’d been engaged for a long time at that point. And I actually wondered if she was going to post about it eventually, because IVF should be paid for by the state (the government). And so should egg freezing!
I really dislike the tone of the conservative commentary about her weight, but yes, it was noticeable, and the puffiness around her face made me think it was either an illness (something that required steroids) or IVF. I love that she came out and addressed it and is normalizing choice for women. Especially to counter the conservatives screeching about all women should just have kids as early as possible and do nothing else, definitely not be a representative in Congress.
Hmmm I never gained weight w IVF steroid injections to harvest eggs. I just got a bit bloated, distended around time of egg stimulation and went back to normal
Same – no weight gain from egg freezing. It’s a really easy quick process. Did it twice. It’s just two weeks each time.
I hope she gets with someone like a Mamdani. Someone hot and progressive, preferably a DSA member
AOC and Hasan Piker would make a lovely couple and have tall babies
Hard pass on Piker. Just no. 🤢
They would make such a hot couple. I love Hasan
Agree with Brassy Rebel here. Hard no on Piker. AOC deserves better.
Ugh, not Piker. He seems like an arrogant jerk and has some really hateful views. I also really don’t see AOC going for someone like him.
I also think they’ve been over for a while. Like the above poster noted, she kind of disappeared off Instagram. She certainly wasn’t IG Lives like she had used to do. And she used to regularly wear her engagement ring, but it disappeared either late 2024 or early 2025. I love her, so this was just something I’d noticed. It’s amazing this was so locked down.
I’d heard about her freezing her eggs, I didn’t know about her fiancé. He always seemed extremely low key and I think I’ve only seen him a few times. It would be hard with how encompassing her job is, for any couple (whether the more public partner is male or female). I wish her the best, there has to be a great organizer somewhere that would be a great match for her.
Wow, I accidentally got on the weird health side of Substack this morning and there were a lot of young women (I assume they aren’t bots) creators up in arms with verbatim talking points about how weird and unnatural freezing your eggs is. They also all repeated the indirect talking point that she’s got a long term partner. It’s disconcerting to see propaganda happening in real time.
Also, when I get on weird health side of the internet I report all the medical misinformation I see. As a service.
That is a long relationship to lose, regardless of when it happened so I feel for her. But that is so exciting she’s starting this journey of freezing her eggs. She’s wonderful and I wish her nothing but the best.
I wish she could clone herself – she is an amazing young woman. I wish her happiness and success in the future, whatever it may hold for her.
I wish her the presidency of the United States. Or rather I wish that for all of us.
I like AOC and think she has great potential. But she is not ready to be POTUS any time soon. She seems a bit adrift right now and publicly recording your egg freezing journey is not the sort of thing you do if becoming president is your immediate ambition. I would love to see her run for and win statewide office first. Also, she hasn’t passed a single piece of legislation after four terms in Congress. And that’s the actual job of a member of Congress. I wish her lots of luck in her personal and her professional life. But becoming president will take a while longer.
I’m with Brassy Rebel. I think she’s great in so many ways, but she doesn’t seem ready for a run for POTUS. Let her try for the Senate first, maybe.
Publicly freezing your eggs is exactly the sort of thing you’d do, if you were contemplating running for POTUS. It would silence all the concern-trolling about fertility and aging.
It is a tough relationship to lose, but the day-to-day life of a congresswoman is difficult with traveling back and forth between DC and her district and living in two places, plus the campaign road trips she did in 2024, while her partner stayed in place I assume with a regular job and routine.
I wish her all that she deserves, which is everything!
Agree 100 per cent
I, too, had noticed that she wasn’t active on Instagram like before and the weight gain but didn’t connect it to romantic personal life. I just figured perhaps life had gotten super busy and the workout routine had fallen to the wayside like it does for so many of us when life gets crazy.
I wish her all the best in her egg freezing journey.
I think her transparency on the egg freezing is great. She is demystifying the process and being brave in doing so. She’s such a great role model.
I like that she’s talking about this. I have two nieces in their 30s, as well as a daughter in law who just hit 30 and has an intense career. My own daughter is in her late 20s. This is a conversation young women are having, so it’s great that she’s being open about it. My nieces already froze their eggs. One is about to get married and plans to try for kids soon after that. The other got pregnant without intervention, thankfully. But the point is they were/are prepared. My daughter plans to do it when she turns 30 if she’s still not ready to have kids.
These are young women who have good degrees and no student debt. My son’s in laws even helped them to buy a house. They still don’t feel ready to try to have children. Their jobs are too demanding right now and they are trying to enjoy married life as a couple for a while. It’s just not the right time to step off that train yet.
Good for her.
The reporter from the Post said she wrote about it when it happened and when she brought it up in response to people asking why AOC wouldn’t have kids now with her fiancé and it got picked up everywhere, she was surprised that it wasn’t common knowledge. So there must have been something else going on when it broke originally (who knows with this administration, but there’s been no shortage of world is ending news that could’ve eclipsed this news)
She is so brave.
She’s running.
AOC stopped wearing her ring sometime between Election Day (11/4/2025) and Mamdani’s inauguration (1/1/2026) according to the reels on her IG account. Wishing her well.