When Laverne Cox first revealed that she had been in a relationship with someone who worked as a police officer and voted for President Donald Trump, people were confused and outraged. Now, about a year later, she’s shared more details about the relationship and what prompted them to break up.
Back in July 2025, the 54-year-old actress was promoting her one-woman show, “Gurrl, How Did I Get Here?” In a promotional video, she said, “My ex-boyfriend, when we met five years ago, at the height of the pandemic, he was 26, and I was 48. He was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed MAGA Republican voter who is a New York City police officer.”
She added that they were “madly in love,” but clarified that she “did not develop any of his politics.” Still, the revelation was extremely controversial.
After the promotional video sparked a ton of backlash, Laverne provided more context.
In a follow-up video, Laverne reacted to the negative comments and said she “didn’t really think about what the reaction would be.” Instead, she was just being honest and also promoting her show. She told her followers that when they matched on Tinder, she didn’t know he was a police officer. She also didn’t know his political views.
At the same time, she said her ex had “a beautiful soul” and “really beautiful qualities.” But later, things got “complicated.”
Laverne also admitted that she could understand why people were so upset. She explained that she “always challenged him with love and empathy” and “tried to listen to his perspectives.”
Ultimately, she tried to see if she could make it work in spite of their differences because she “fell in love.” She also made it very clear that she never voted for Trump. “Everything Trump is doing, I’m against,” Laverne clarified.
She emphasized that “people are complicated.”
And also said that she didn’t want to “dehumanize” anyone, including those who voted for Trump. A commenter pointed out that the MAGA movement dehumanizes trans people. Laverne acknowledged this, but added, “I don’t think my ex-boyfriend dehumanized me, though.”
She explained, “Yes, my ex-boyfriend was MAGA, voted for Trump, but that is not the sum total of who he is as a human being.” According to her, her boyfriend was “a very low-information voter” who didn’t seem to realize that Trump was trying to take away gender-affirming care.
This explanation was also controversial, though. In the comments, some people argued that it was about so much more than mere differences in opinion. “Why you think it’s a political issue is beyond me,” one commenter wrote. “This is a HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY ISSUE.”
But others defended Laverne, with one person writing, “Life and love are complicated.”
So, during a recent appearance on “The View,” Laverne was asked about this.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin mentioned how people were angry when they found out about Laverne’s MAGA ex-boyfriend. She also asked Laverne what she learned from that particular relationship. Laverne said, “People show you who they are eventually. When it started out, there was a beautiful, amazing guy who treated me better than any man I’d ever met.”
She explained that she later found out what his real job was because originally, he had lied about what he did for work. “We didn’t plan to fall in love, but we did,” she said, adding that “the political affiliation became obvious” later on.
“But I’d already had feelings for him, and I wanted to see him as a human being beyond that,” she explained. “Then, his politics and his unexamined life became clear after the three-and-a-half years, and I was like, ‘I love him, but I love myself more.’ And staying in this relationship betrayed myself. Not just my political values.”
Ultimately, the relationship didn’t work out for a reason. She said, “In theory, I’d like to believe we can have relationships across political differences, but there was a value difference. Our values were really, really different, and the personal is political, so the uninterrogated patriarchy and toxic masculinity also were no-gos for me.”
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