LAVERNE COX STUNS FANS WITH UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY: “I DIDN’T PLAN TO FALL IN LOVE” CQ

Laverne Cox and Alyssa Farah Griffin on ‘The View’.Credit: 

ABC

Emmy-nominated actress and trans activist Laverne Cox has opened up about controversy that stemmed from a past admission that she once dated a “blonde-haired, blue-eyed, MAGA Republican voter” who was also a New York City police officer.

The 54-year-old Orange Is the New Black actress and new Transcendent memoir author appeared Monday on The View, where she was grilled on the relationship — the prior reveal of which courted extreme pushback from the LGBTQ community — by former Donald Trump staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin.

“People show you who they are eventually,” Cox said of the relationship with the pro-Trump cop, after she addressed the criticism she received from fellow LGBTQ community members.

Cox admitted that the man, whom she didn’t identify by name, “treated me better” than anyone she’d dated up to that point, though, as she later found out, initially lied to her about what he did for a living.

“We didn’t plan to fall in love, but we did,” Cox continued, noting that, later, his “political affiliation became obvious,” but she “already had feelings for him” and “wanted to see him as a human being, beyond that.”

While she held out hope, “his politics and his unexamined life became clear” to her throughout the course of their relationship.

“I love him, but I love myself more, and staying in this relationship, I betrayed myself — not just my political values, because, in theory, I’d like to believe we can have relationships across political differences,” she observed. “But there was a value difference.”

Cox first told fans of the relationship while promoting a live performance last summer, and eventually addressed criticism after receiving sustained pushback online, as the MAGA movement and Trump’s administration have been categorized by many as anti-trans.

In a subsequent statement, Cox said she met the man on Tinder, and again said that he concealed his real career from her.

“Fascism is not consistent with my values. I am an anti-fascist. I never adopted any of my ex’s politics,” Cox maintained. “I always challenged him with love and empathy and tried to listen to his perspectives. Often corrected him with facts… the good things about the relationship were so good that I was willing to work with the politics that I didn’t agree with.”