Josh Andrés Rivera (2021 – present)
Josh Andrés Rivera is Rachel Zegler’s boyfriend. The two met while filming Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story in 2020 when Zegler played the main protagonist Maria while Rivera played Chino who was in love with Maria. Before they became official, Zegler quietly professed her love to her boyfriend on X (formerly Twitter) writing, “i love josh andres rivera.”
The two officially announced their love to the world on Valentine’s Day 2021. “‘Committing valen-crimes,’ captioned Zegler, while capturing Rivera feeding her a romantic dinner: “Happy love day from me n mine.”
In an Elle cover story, Zegler opened up about how much Rivera means to her. “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 of Rivera. “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 have gushed about working together for the second time on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. “It is the greatest experience to go to work and have a familiar face that feels like home,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “And Josh is my home. So it was really, really lovely.”
She continued the same sentiment to People, “And also as [Rivera’s] girlfriend, his friend, and his coworker, it’s amazing to see the trajectory of his career, and to witness his rise to stardom. I love him so much,” she added.
“I feel really lucky,” Rivera added. “It was a really great source of comfort for me to have her with me so far away from home.”
He continued, “We were in a different country. We got to explore that country together. It was absolutely lovely. I feel very fortunate.”
“We have debriefs at the end of the day and we talk about it,” Rivera told the publication about their daily routine on set. “It’s acting and she’s very good at it and she’s very professional and she’s a wonderful coworker. I think we were able to communicate when one of us was down. It was nice. We were good support for one another.”
At The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premiere, Rivera revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he wrote the Golden Globe winner love notes on set. “It was a doodle actually,” he admitted. “I was like, “Rachel, do you want me to draw you something?” She’s like, “Yeah.”‘
The actor was asked to draw her “as a flower.” “I think I just drew a stick for a stem and then the flower and I put a little smiley face on it, and said, “Rachel.”
