Laverne Cox Defends Past Relationship With ‘MAGA Republican' Cop After Intense Backlash
The Emmy-winning actor, who is transgender, made the eyebrow-raising comment about her ex while promoting her forthcoming live show, 'Gurrl, How Did I Get Here?' set to take place in New York next week.
Though Cox didn't identify the man by name, she described him in a short Instagram video as 'blond-haired, blue-eyed MAGA Republican voter who is a New York City police officer,' later boasting he was 21 years her junior and 'hot.'
'We were madly in love,' she said in the clip, posted Monday. 'I did not develop any of his politics. I still have my own.'
Cox appears to have previously alluded to the relationship in interviews where she spoke about a breakup with a former partner who wasn't 'aligned with my values.' Still, it wasn't long before the 'Orange Is the New Black' and 'Inventing Anna' actor's Instagram post was flooded with negative responses from followers who called her out for being hypocritical.
'You are able to look past the fact that someone voted against your community and basically everything you represent…?' one person wrote. 'I don't get the punch line… nor does this entice me to want to go to a show to figure out how you justify this.'
Added another, 'Sooooo the morals are dismissed when he's hot. Got it.'
Cox attempted to clarify her comments in a followup video posted to Instagram Tuesday, noting she hadn't anticipated the criticism.
'I never adapted any of my ex's politics,' she explained in the roughly 50-minute clip. 'I always challenged him with love and empathy and tried to listen to his perspectives, often corrected him with facts, and I wanted to see if it possible to have a relationship with someone with different political beliefs in theory.'
Though she warned against 'dehumanizing' those with different views, she went on to note, 'I think, with this current administration, lines certainly have to be drawn, because we're fighting for our lives in a different way than we were five years ago.'
'Everything Trump is doing, I'm against,' she said.
Though Cox publicly backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, her latest comments about her ex coincide with a new interview in which she offered a less-than-complimentary take on Harris' campaign.
'The way you win an election is turning out the base,' she told Ts Madison on her 'Outlaws' podcast last week. 'Trump turned out his base. The white supremacists who hadn't voted for years, they got up and they got out and the voted. She needed to turn out the base, but she needed to do it with a message that resonated with people that made them feel like she understood what working people are going through.'
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