Highlights
- Jussie Smollett and Karamo Brown are reportedly dating weeks after Smollett’s broken engagement.
- The pair was spotted on an all-day L.A. date that included lunch with Karamo’s mom and a hike.
- Both men have highly publicized personal and professional controversies that bond them as a pair.
You genuinely could not write this. And yet, here we are.
Jussie Smollett has found a new leading man. TMZ is reporting he is now dating Queer Eye star Karamo Brown. The revelation lands just weeks after Smollett’s last relationship imploded spectacularly.
Smollett had broken off his engagement to his fiancé, Jabari Redd, with sources telling TMZ that he ended the engagement in the last few weeks. Smollett reportedly wants to move on and work on his music career. Apparently, he wasted no time.
The new couple stepped out together in Los Angeles for an all-day date, grabbing lunch with Karamo’s mom, running errands, and wrapping things up with a hike through Runyon Canyon, where they weren’t shy about showing a little affection. The chemistry was hard to miss. The two were smiling their way around town, chatting nonstop and sticking close together.
Meeting the mom on date one? Bold strategy. We respect the confidence.
Brown sat down with Carlos King on this week’s Reality With The King and had this to say about the man he’s dating: “I do believe this is going to be my husband. I believe this is going to be my forever person. I feel it every single day.”
That this particular pairing has come to pass is, simultaneously, the most surprising and least surprising news of 2026. Consider the shared résumé of chaos. Smollett, of course, became synonymous with one of pop culture’s most bizarre sagas when he approached the Chicago Police Department in January 2019 and reported a fake hate crime that he had staged against himself, enlisting two Nigerian-American brothers to execute the hoax. The Illinois Supreme Court later overturned his conviction, and Smollett has never wavered: “I am innocent both in the eyes of God and of our criminal justice system,” he said in a statement.
Karamo Brown, meanwhile, has been navigating his own season of spectacle. Brown fell out with three of his Queer Eye co-stars after a hot mic moment his own mom overheard on set. Antoni Porowski, Tan France, and Jonathan Van Ness were overheard speaking negatively about Karamo, including criticizing some of his lifestyle choices. Karamo’s mom heard the entire conversation through her headphones and later told her son what was said.
In March 2026, NBCUniversal canceled Karamo’s eponymous talk show, citing local station programming preferences. It was not exactly a quiet first quarter of the year.
And yet, despite all of it, or perhaps because of it, these two have clearly found something in each other. There is a reason Karamo was already firmly in Smollett’s corner long before this romance reportedly began. When rapper 50 Cent publicly mocked Smollett’s comeback performance at Harlem Pride just days ago, Karamo rushed to defend him, writing, “I was at this PRIDE event and Jussie killed it. F—k off for using one clip from the entire 30 min show to try bring someone down!”
That kind of ride-or-die energy has a way of becoming something more.
Karamo had been dating photographer Carlos Medel since May 2021, and the pair split in early 2025. Between the two of them, Smollett and Brown have weathered criminal cases, canceled contracts, crumbled engagements, and co-star warfare. They have both survived the full Hollywood machine grinding against them.
If nothing else, they understand each other.
