Rachel Zegler‘s life drastically changed when she was cast as the lead in 2021’s “West Side Story.” The 22-year-old actor was quickly catapulted into the public eye thanks to her undeniable talent, which was noticed during an open casting call for the remake of the classic musical. While the possibility of making lifelong friends with her costars – including Josh Andrés Rivera, Ariana DeBose, and Rita Moreno – likely crossed her mind, Zegler may not have been aware that she’d also meet her future boyfriend while working on the project.
Zegler and Rivera went public with their romance in February 2022. A month later, she thanked him in a Twitter post following her best actress win at the National Board of Review gala. “I wish to extend my thanks to the love of my life, who I was blessed enough to meet on the set of this film many moons ago,” she wrote. “Thank you for holding my hand in my dreams and in my reality. I love doing life with you. Thanks for making me laugh.”
In an April 2022 interview with Elle, Zegler shared how Rivera positively impacts her life. “There’s always this deep understanding of what I go through. Since [his experience was] on a different scale, he’s able to bring me back to earth and tell me when it really doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because he’s removed from it to a certain degree, he’s able to just snap me out of it, and tell me to stop checking my phone, or remind me of what actually matters, and remind me to be present, and to not focus on the opinions of 3,000 faceless strangers on the internet.”
Zegler and Rivera are set to play costars once again in a Hunger Games prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” in which the former stars as tribute Lucy Gray Baird and the latter as Capitol student Sejanus Plinth. When production on the film wrapped in November 2022, Zegler wrote of Rivera in a long Instagram post where she also thanked the cast and crew: “to my favorite actor in the world, josh rivera, i love you so much. more and more each day. i am so glad we did this together.”
Ahead, here’s what we know about Zegler and Rivera’s sweet romance.
