Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fiancé, Riley Roberts, have been engaged since 2022, but their relationship began over a decade before that. The New York Congresswoman first met Roberts when they were both undergrads at Boston University. The couple started dating after becoming acquainted during a weekly debate event and remained together throughout their college careers, according to the biography Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC. While they ultimately broke up after graduation, they found their way back to each other several years later. By 2022, Ocasio-Cortez was a household name in the world of politics — and Roberts was ready to pop the question to his longtime girlfriend. Looking back, Ocasio-Cortez admits she was a little unsure about taking the next step. When Roberts told her he wanted to propose sometime that year, Ocasio-Cortez says she told him he’d have to “woo” her and “convince” her why they should get married after being together for a while. Though her uncertainty was partially driven by the incredible life changes they’d experienced since the first meeting, Ocasio-Cortez says it helped her realize Roberts was the kind of partner who celebrated her success and wasn’t made insecure by a woman’s good fortune. Ultimately, the couple got engaged in April 2022. “I feel like I won the men lottery in my life,” AOC told GQ later that September, adding Roberts to a list of men who’ve earned her admiration — from her late father, Sergio Ocasio, to her chief of staff, Gerardo Bonilla Chavez.
So who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s fiancé? Here’s everything to know about Riley Roberts and his relationship with the politician.
He’s from Arizona
Roberts calls Arizona home, according to Business Insider. Although not much is known about his early life, after graduating from high school, he enrolled in Boston University, where he studied sociology and finance.
He has a career in the marketing and web development field
After graduating from college, Roberts returned to his home state, where he helped launch websites for small businesses as a UX growth consultant. According to a now-deleted LinkedIn account, Roberts also assisted with marketing for HomeBinder, an online home-management service, in 2014. “I love helping other subscription startups implement the best practices I’ve developed to quickly and sustainably grow with Facebook Ads, website conversion-rate optimization, and user experience design,” he previously wrote on his LinkedIn profile. Roberts also used his acquired skills to help Ocasio-Cortez early in her campaign, reportedly assisting with digital marketing and Facebook outreach, per Business Insider.
Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts met while they were students at Boston University
The couple met over a decade ago while studying at Boston University in what Ocasio-Cortez described to Vogue as “true nerdy fashion.” They both frequently attended “Coffee & Conversations,” a weekly student town hall run by the university’s dean of students. According to Take Up Space, topics of discussion ranged from “the war in Afghanistan” to pop culture — and Roberts served as one of Ocasio-Cortez’s main “sparring partners.” “Riley was, for lack of a better term, the s—starter,” Ocasio-Cortez’s friend Eric Baker shared in the biography. “Riley’s just as smart as anyone you’ve ever met, probably smarter, but he would actively say things just to stir the pot.” He added, “Riley was just like, ‘This is dumb. Why are we all going around in a circle saying the same thing?’ He enjoyed intellectual combat and I think she enjoyed his pushback.”
They broke up after college but eventually reconnected
When they graduated from college, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts went their separate ways. While Roberts moved home to Arizona, Ocasio-Cortez remained on the East Coast. After spending some time apart, Ocasio-Cortez’s mom told the Daily Mail that the couple “reconnected” sometime around 2015. Roberts later moved to New York to be closer to Ocasio-Cortez, where he worked out of their apartment in the Bronx.
They like to keep their relationship low-key
Although Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts have known each other for a long time, they prefer to keep their relationship out of the spotlight. The pair were also private about their romance in college, with one friend admitting she didn’t even know they were together until several years after graduation. While their relationship is now public knowledge, they have still kept things quiet. Roberts infrequently appears on Ocasio-Cortez’s social media accounts and rarely photographed together. Occasionally, Roberts is even confused as a campaign
