A familiar face in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s orbit has resurfaced — with the couple’s dog in tow.
Riley Roberts, Ocasio-Cortez’s former fiancé, was seen Saturday for the first time since reports emerged that the longtime couple had split, taking their shared dog, Deco, for a walk outside the lawmaker’s Queens apartment.
Roberts, 38, was spotted around midday leaving the three-bedroom East Elmhurst apartment he had shared with Ocasio-Cortez, accompanied by the stocky 6-year-old French bulldog. He wore a black long-sleeve shirt, camouflage shorts and army-green Birkenstocks.
Wearing a Knicks cap, sunglasses and earbuds, Roberts took Deco on a quiet walk that lasted about 20 minutes before returning to the apartment.
The sighting came days after news of the breakup surfaced Tuesday, as Ocasio-Cortez publicly discussed her decision to begin the process of freezing her eggs.
It remains unclear whether Roberts still lives with Ocasio-Cortez or has moved elsewhere since the split, and whether he was simply helping care for Deco while the congresswoman has been documenting her fertility treatments in a series of videos for her 9.7 million Instagram followers.
Ocasio-Cortez, 36, and Roberts reportedly ended their relationship in February, with sources telling the Daily Mail that her growing success had become a strain for the Arizona-born web developer.
“Rare is the man who is able to put himself in the back seat to his wife’s political career,” a Capitol Hill source who had socialized with the couple told the outlet, suggesting that Ocasio-Cortez’s rapid political rise may have contributed to what the source described as a “very, very toxic” power imbalance.
“The marvel is that it lasted as long as it did.”
The pair, who was pictured dining out together at a Midtown’s Black Iron Burger joint in May, have stayed close friends, the sources told the outlet.
“They eat together a lot. They are close friends, but it’s no longer a romantic relationship,” said a former Democratic operative.
A third source, identified as a former AOC staffer, said the two “reminded me a little bit of my grandparents in their affectionate nature.”
“So when it was working, it was beautiful,” the ex-staffer continued. “You know when people get together young. Life is life. Life happens. I hope they’re happy.”
Neither has publicly confirmed the breakup, with AOC telling The Post “I don’t comment on my private life,” when asked outside her apartment Wednesday.
Her former beau’s 85-year-old father, Vincent Roberts refused to comment about the relationship when reached by phone at his $1.4 million Paradise Valley, Arizona home, this week by a Post reporter.
The couple had been together 15 years, first meeting through a student discussion group when they both attended Boston University. Roberts proposed in April 2022 during a trip to Puerto Rico, with AOC proudly touting her “zero emissions ring,” but she stopped wearing it after October 2023.
The one-time “it” couple — who made a splash at the 2021 Met Gala when AOC showed up in her infamous “Tax the Rich” dress — bought the purebred pooch in 2020 — naming him after the early 1900s art movement.
“We decided to name him after one of Riley & I’s favorite design styles: Art Deco – which also is inspired by themes of optimism & social and technological progress and is a fixture in iconic NYC architecture,’’ she then told her Instagram followers.
Deco made regular appearances on the couple’s Instagram, like a happy Christmas 2021 snap of all three wearing matching outfits.
Now the French bulldog is a sad reminder of their broken home.
When they got Deco, the couple attracted the wrath of animal rights group PETA.
“We really couldn’t believe our eyes. . . . with the millions of homeless dogs out there, you apparently chose to buy a purebred puppy instead of adopting one from an animal shelter,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote in a scathing letter to AOC in January 2020.
“French bulldogs are inbred in order to produce ‘breed-specific traits,’ which cause health problems that many people who will be influenced by your purchase won’t be able to afford to address.”
