Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wasn't sure if an intercultural, interracial relationship would be the right fit for her
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- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told GQ she had doubts about whether an interracial relationship was the right fit for her.
- The congresswoman has known her partner Riley Roberts, who is white, since they were in college.
- The couple became engaged in April 2022.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared in a new interview that she had initial doubts about whether an intercultural and interracial relationship would be the right fit for her.
The congresswoman told GQ in an interview published on Wednesday, September 7, that her relationship with Riley Roberts, who is white, sparked questions for her about identity and belonging.
Ocasio-Cortez is Nuyorican, a person of Puerto Rican-descent born and raised in New York. Throughout her political career, she has faced racist and sexist attacks from right-wing trolls and politicians alike.
Ocasio-Cortez met Roberts when they were both 19 as undergrads at Boston University. When they started dating, neither could foresee how their lives would change.
"For him to experience us dating when I was still working as a waitress and a bartender through now and seeing how the world responds [to me], I think has been a very eye-opening experience for him as well," the congresswoman told GQ.
Roberts, a web developer, has largely remained out of the spotlight, even as Ocasio-Cortez has skyrocketed to become one of the most well-known figures in politics.
In "Take Up Space," a biography about Ocasio-Cortez's political rise, her friend Eric Baker describes Roberts as one of the congresswoman's "sparring partners."
"Riley's just as smart as anyone you've ever met, probably smarter, but he would actively say things just to stir the pot," Baker said in the biography. "He enjoyed intellectual combat and I think she enjoyed his pushback."
The congresswoman explained to GQ that at the beginning of their relationship, she was unsure whether an intercultural, interracial relationship would be right for her. She also expressed initial fears that her relationship would change once she decided to run for office.
"I think it causes a conflict within them that they didn't even anticipate," Ocasio-Cortez said about some men who date successful women. "It's not even a deception. It's just, they uncover insecurities that they didn't know were there." But she said Roberts has been one of her staunchest supporters throughout her career.
"He has been so supportive and willing and deeply engaging. He's not a witness to this. He dives into the fray for himself in that he uses what we go through as opportunities for personal growth. And it's incredible," she said. In 2020, as a part of an Instagram Stories Q&A, Ocasio-Cortez enlisted Roberts to help answer a question about "combating racism as a white person."
"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 in the Instagram Story.
Ocasio-Cortez told GQ she never considered marriage as an inevitable part of her life. When Roberts told her his New Year's resolution for 2022 was to be engaged by the end of the year, she didn't immediately jump onto the idea.
"And I said, 'Oh, really? Well, you're going to have to woo me. You're going to have to convince me, after all this time, why I should,'" Ocasio-Cortez told GQ.
They became engaged in April this year during a vacation in Puerto Rico, Insider confirmed in May.
"I feel like I won the men lottery in my life," Ocasio-Cortez said, describing the other men in her life who she admires, including her father, cousins, and chief of staff, Gerardo Bonilla Chavez.