When AOC Talked About Freezing Her Eggs, She Probably Didn’t Realize What Else She Revealed

Relationships Hot AOC Summer Perhaps the world is not ready for the star congresswoman to be single, but I sure am. By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Heather Schwedel? Aug 13, 20261:57 PM Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by James Devaney/GC Images. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. From the moment she leapt into national politics as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 2018, the public has wondered what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s future holds. What will she do next? Will she run for Senate, or even president? And when? But in recent days, a new question has emerged alongside the ones about her political ambitions: Who will she date next? Whether it was intentional or not, Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to share her egg-freezing journey with the world resulted in another piece of information about her private life coming to light: Ocasio-Cortez appears to be single. Her relationship with Riley Roberts, to whom she got engaged in 2022 and has been linked with since their college days at Boston University, is reportedly over, and has been over for a while, according to sources as diverse as the New York Times and TMZ. Suddenly, it makes a little more sense why the 36-year-old might be freezing her eggs, and why she didn’t mention a partner in any of her videos about the process. Roberts and Ocasio-Cortez could look like an unlikely pair physically: she, a polished woman whose preternatural political gifts went along with her impossibly smooth hair and perfect dimples, and he, a relatively normal-looking redhead who towered over her and never looked quite so red-carpet ready. But their long history made their coupling endearing, and AOC’s fans could find comfort in the notion that she was with someone she knew before she became a progressive darling or Fox News target. “I feel like I won the men lottery in my life,” AOC said to GQ after getting engaged in 2022. Her mother was a fan of Roberts too, telling the Daily Mail in 2019, “I love him. He is the most loving, supporting person I’ve seen.” We don’t know what went wrong but don’t believe the claims that AOC went on a rant on Instagram calling Roberts a “loser”—she hasn’t besmirched him at all, or even outright confirmed a breakup took place. (The “loser” comments were directed more generally toward men who don’t respect women’s rights to make reproductive decisions on their own timeline.) As Ocasio-Cortez spoke about in the egg-freezing series, her position in Congress means that she lives under a microscope, and it’s safe to assume that complicates everything about her personal life. Not that I expect that will stop legions of men and people of all genders from throwing their hats into the ring for a chance to date AOC next. As one viral tweet pointed out, she will have her pick of suitors, à la Penelope in The Odyssey. The controversial looksmaxxer Clavicular has already volunteered his services, though he also claimed to be joking. The harder part to predict about all of this is whether she’ll be interested in any of her many prospects. So far, Roberts is the only data point we have about what constitutes AOC’s romantic taste, which doesn’t leave us a lot to work with. As far as other famous beefy gingers out there, I’m drawing a blank. She doesn’t have to date anyone, of course. She is a very serious person doing very serious work, and it’s demeaning to suggest she needs a partner, blah blah blah. But you also have to admit it will be fun to see what happens. Sue me, but I’m curious to live in the world with a single AOC in it! The main thing I’m thinking about in determining who might be a good match for her is actually a video from her college days, in which she dances to the song “Lisztomania” in the style of The Breakfast Club. (2009 was a weird time.) She looks gorgeous and like a huge dork at the same time, which seems to me to be a perfect reflection of her essence. Many men will want to date her because she is gorgeous and she’s AOC, but it is only those who can accept her for the dork she is that will really have a shot. I would love, for example, for Ocasio-Cortez to hook up with fellow Bronx native Desus Nice, whose television show she once appeared on, but I don’t think Desus is a good match for the AOC who went by “Sandy” in college and danced in such a dumb video. This is why I presume she will end up dating someone more along the lines of an Alex Soros, the investor and philanthropist Huma Abedin married after divorcing Anthony Weiner. We’re looking for an Alex Soros type with democratic socialist politics, to be clear, which may end up being a bit of a unicorn, but come on, AOC can’t have a private equity boyfriend. So don’t be surprised if she’s single for a while. Will she run for Senate, or even the presidency, as a single woman? Before last week, I didn’t think a congresswoman could vlog about freezing her eggs, so the bounds of what’s possible are changing quickly. But whatever happens, that first news alert about whom she’s rumored to be dating, no matter how semi-fictional it is, is gonna feel so good. Congress Dating and Relationships Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez