Who Is Louis Diame, Issa Rae's Longtime Boyfriend and Possibly Fiance?

There must be something in the air, because literally everyone is getting engaged! First, it was Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom (on Valentine's Day no less...we love romance), then Jennifer Lopez flashed the gigantic engagement ring that her fiancé Alex Rodriguez gave to her. Now, it looks like our favorite Awkward Black Girl Issa Rae may have also jumped the single ship to join the ranks in the land of happily ever after, with Rae potentially being engaged to Louis Diame.

As the cover girl of Essence Magazine's April issue, Rae absolutely radiates black girl magic, which isn't super surprising because she always looks amazing. What does come as a surprise is the piece of jewelry casually resting on her ring finger. Issa engagement ring!?

My girl is getting married, y'all! At least, I think she is?

In the past, rumors have swirled linking Rae to a number of celebrities (including the snack that is Kofi Siriboe, who has since confirmed his relationship with supermodel Duckie Thot), but mum's the word when it comes to her love life. "I get so much feedback about everything," she told us last year. "The one thing I don’t need feedback on is who I’m sleeping with."

Since Rae isn't fond of spilling that particular type of tea, the internet had to do a some digging to find out the identity of the mystery man in her life. Luckily, a name popped up fairly quickly: Louis Diame.

Getty Images

The Senegalese businessman seems to have been in the picture for quite some time, and has even appeared on a few red carpets with his rumored lady love over the years. He looks good, she looks good—we're really feeling this couple. Though very little is known about him, they've reportedly been together for up to a decade—even before she became famous.

Since rocketing into the limelight of mainstream Hollywood with the success of her critically-acclaimed television series Insecure, Rae has been held near and dear to the culture. The show's main character (also named Issa) deals with challenges in work and in love and was written to reflect some of the experiences that Rae faced in her real life. Because Rae's character on the series is so unlucky in love, I was somehow convinced that she was standing in solidarity as my comrade in singleness in real life as well, but it looks like art does not imitate life in this case. This is one of those rare situations where I'm actually happy to be wrong.

I doubt that we'll get an official confirmation that our good sis is headed to the altar any time soon (besides this Instagram post from the set of the Essence shoot that garnered a wave of emoji eyes in the comments), but I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for an invitation to the big day...unless this one gets lost in the mail like the invites to all of her other poppin' functions. Yes, I'm still salty about missing that celebrity-studded pre-Emmy party. #YachtSh*t

Engaged or otherwise, I will forever stan the brilliance that is Ms. Jo-Issa Rae Diop. I used her government name because the love goes that deep.

Call me, Issa. I love you.

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