Look closely and you’ll see: Something is missing from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D., N.Y.) ring finger.
Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t been pictured wearing her engagement ring since November 2023, according to an extensive Washington Free Beacon review of Getty and Associated Press images, as well as the lawmaker’s social media posts and public appearances. The ring’s 17-month absence, which has gone unnoticed in the press until now, raises questions about the status of her betrothal to her low-profile fiancé, web developer Riley Roberts, who proposed to Ocasio-Cortez during a vacation to Puerto Rico in April 2022. No news of their nuptials has emerged in the three years since.
Ocasio-Cortez confirmed in May 2022 that Roberts proposed to her with a “zero emission” ring made from “recycled gold.” The ring, which she later reported as a gift from Roberts worth $3,057.04, was a constant presence on the ring finger of her left hand during the first year and several months of her engagement. She flaunted it to her followers on Instagram Live, sported it on her overseas junket to Latin America, and wore it to televised committee hearings. The ring can be seen in almost every photo taken of the lawmaker in public with a clear shot of her left hand from May 2022 through November 2023.
And then it seemingly disappeared. Since the start of December 2023, Ocasio-Cortez has given a primetime speech at the DNC, attended several televised committee hearings, appeared on the Late Show, and toured the nation on a private jet with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), among countless other public appearances. Ocasio-Cortez didn’t wear her engagement ring to any of those events, though she frequently sported several other bands on the fingers of both her hands.
Far from being mere tabloid fodder, the legal status of Ocasio-Cortez’s relationship with Roberts also carries significant financial and ethical ramifications for the potential 2028 presidential candidate. By virtue of remaining unmarried to Ocasio-Cortez, Roberts retains certain privacy privileges not afforded to the legally married spouses of other lawmakers.
He has been exempt from publicly disclosing his assets, stock trades, and his places of employment as a part of Ocasio-Cortez’s annual financial disclosure reports. It’s a level of secrecy not granted to the spouses of Ocasio-Cortez’s married colleagues such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), whose husband’s market-busting stock trades frequently make national headlines.
It’s unclear if Roberts has bought or sold any stocks or securities since Ocasio-Cortez assumed office in 2019 and her office has not responded to several requests for comment. Roberts didn’t return phone calls and text messages to a phone number listed under his name.
Kendra Arnold, the executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust watchdog group, said Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts are benefiting from a “loophole” in congressional financial disclosure rules that provide different treatment for members’ long-term partners versus spouses. It’s a loophole that exists “because at the time the financial disclosure laws were written, marriage was the standard and it was not common to have other long-term relationships,” Arnold said.
“The financial disclosure laws apply to both the members of Congress and their spouse,” Arnold said. “This is incredibly important for two reasons: first is that a spouse may be used to access or curry favor with the member, and second is that members have confidential information that may be wrongly shared with the spouse or make financial investments in the spouse’s name.”
“When a member is not legally married but in a long-term relationship similar to marriage, these concerns still apply even though there is no disclosure requirement,” the watchdog added.
The engagement ring’s 17-month disappearance may indicate that Ocasio-Cortez’s relationship with Roberts has turned sour. But the couple’s actions tell a different story.
They were filmed walking out of a Brooklyn movie theater together in March 2024 on what appeared to be a date when pro-Gaza protesters accosted Ocasio-Cortez. The lawmaker wasn’t wearing her engagement ring, the footage shows.
Public records also indicate the couple still live together. Both Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts were registered to vote out of the same Queens apartment during the November elections, New York voter records show.
Adding to the mystery is that Ocasio-Cortez referred to Roberts as her “spouse” in four House Ethics Committee filings pertaining to her overseas travel in 2023, the Free Beacon reported. The committee defines a lawmaker’s spouse as “someone to whom you’re legally married,” but Ocasio-Cortez’s office insisted to the Free Beacon in response to the documents that she was “not legally married.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts have lived together as partners since the start of her political career. He was a close confidant during her first run for Congress in 2018 and earned $6,000 in consulting fees from the political action committee that convinced her to launch her campaign. Roberts has remained a constant fixture in her daily life since she assumed elected office, saying during a rare appearance on Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram Live feed in 2021 that he shares plenty of “quality time” together with his influential partner.
“We spend mornings together, spend quality time together, browse TikTok together,” Roberts said.
What little has been reported about Roberts indicates he values his privacy immensely. Former New York Magazine writer Josh Gondelman praised Roberts for his “tenacious invisibility” in the publication’s 2022 biography of Ocasio-Cortez, Take Up Space.
“I feel guilty even writing about Riley Roberts,” Gondelman wrote in the book. “He clearly doesn’t want to be written about, and he hasn’t done anything to compel me to disrespect his wishes. So I hope from now on we leave him in peace.”
Ocasio-Cortez has shared the limelight with Roberts on some occasions. He appeared sparingly in a Netflix documentary filmed during her first run for Congress and accompanied her to the 2021 Met Gala where she wore her infamous “Tax The Rich” dress. Roberts has made a handful of appearances on Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram Live feed, including a February 2020 stream where he shared tips on how to combat racism as a white person. But he has no social media presence of his own. His LinkedIn page, which boasts he has provided digital marketing services to more than 60 startups, appears to have been dormant since Ocasio-Cortez took office in 2019.
Roberts’s elusiveness could cause political liabilities for Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced a bill in January that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from trading individual stocks, a measure the New York Democrat said was necessary to eliminate conflicts of interest and restore integrity to Congress.
But there’s a major loophole built into Ocasio-Cortez’s legislation—it wouldn’t apply to her life partner. Even if it were signed into law, Roberts could trade stocks unimpeded so long as he remains legally unmarried to Ocasio-Cortez.
The disappearance of Ocasio-Cortez’s engagement ring could have a more simple explanation. It’s possible her engagement was doomed from the start.
The New York lawmaker told GQ in September 2022 that Roberts had to convince her to accept his engagement, noting that she had long harbored reservations that their mixed-race relationship was destined to fail and that the growing power disparity between the two could cause Roberts to grow to resent her.
The couple had an on-again-off-again relationship before their engagement. They briefly dated as students at Boston University but separated after graduating. They reunited when Ocasio-Cortez was working as a bartender in New York City before she launched her first campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez brushed her compatibility concerns aside and accepted her partner’s proposal in April 2022. But it remains to be seen if she’ll ever legally tie the knot with Roberts.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
