Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Since she won her first election in 2018 at 28, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, has been a political obsession for fans to adore and critics to abhor.

Her body, her weight, the clothes she wore in magazine shoots, her lipstick, her endorsements, her ill-fated decision to attend the Met Gala in a “tax the rich” gown, have been parsed and picked apart, in ways she has described as sometimes “dehumanizing” even when that parsing was coming from her supporters.

One area where she was insulated from such scrutiny was her love life: Ms. Ocasio-Cortez arrived on the national political scene with her boyfriend from college, Riley Roberts, by her side. And he stayed there as she became one of the most consequential women in American politics, a burly redhead who stood mostly outside the frame of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s public life. In 2022, her team announced in a fund-raising email that the couple was engaged.

Four years later, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is at a new juncture. Her relationship with Mr. Roberts quietly ended some time ago and her decision to livestream her egg-freezing journey has forced to the forefront an uncomfortable topic for a lawmaker who is both unusually open and incredibly private: a breakup that she had never broadcast, despite giving her followers a sense that they are often along with her for the ride.

The new information about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s private life is coming alongside a spate of speculation that she’s preparing to run for president. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who has said she hasn’t ruled out a presidential run or a run for Senate, could now be navigating a possible national or statewide campaign as a young, world-famous, single woman, a profile that would only intensify the ideological and cultural debates that swirl around her.

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