Zellnor Myrie and Diana Richardson are engaged

Love was in the air at Somos as lawmakers, political operatives and lobbyists descended on Puerto Rico for the annual post-election legislative retreat.

On Saturday, the last full day of the conference, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and former Assembly Member Diana Richardson got engaged, multiple sources told City & State. The pair have dated for years, and though they’ve never publicly announced their relationship, they haven’t gone out of their way to hide it. Their courtship has been an open secret among New York political circles, going back to Myrie’s first campaign for state Senate in 2018. The pair represented partially overlapping districts in Central Brooklyn, and in 2020, they protested for racial justice together at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, both getting pepper sprayed by the NYPD. 

Neither Myrie nor Richardson publicized their new relationship status, although Richardson posted a portion of Beyonce’s “Upgrade U” featuring Jay-Z on her Instagram story. In Richardson’s Instagram story, Jay-Z raps the lyrics “rumors you on the verge of a new merge, ‘cause that rock on your ya finger’s like a tumor, you can’t fit ya hand in ya new purse,” a reference to an engagement ring. The song as a whole is about a woman who improves her partner’s life.

The pair’s pending nuptials place them on a lengthy list of New York political power couples, although Richardson right now finds herself out of power after getting fired from her role as deputy Brooklyn borough president last month. Neither Myrie nor Richardson could be reached for comment.