Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
I am nothing if not a busybody when it comes to celebrities’ personal lives—an occupational hazard, one might say—but Olivia Rodrigo’s romantic goings-on are particularly enthralling to me. For one thing, we know they’ll eventually be fodder for yet another banger album; for another, she tends to drop lyrical Easter eggs about her subjects (remember the Sabrina Carpenter of it all?) that I’m slightly addicted to trying to decipher.
Rodrigo’s current rumored relationship, however, isn’t one she’s sung about or even discussed publicly yet; the pop star, who split with her actor ex Louis Partridge last December, has recently been linked to private equity associate Julian Croonenberghs. Not only have the two been spotted in Brooklyn, but they also showed up at an Icelandic airport together, heading back to New York. (And if there’s one thing that can truly test and/or confirm brand-new love, it’s traveling; what if your going-through-TSA paces don’t align? Or, somewhat more romantically, what if they do?)
Croonenberghs certainly isn’t a public figure on Rodrigo’s level, but we do know that he worked at Goldman Sachs before joining the private equity firm Hg and played field hockey at Brown. Men in finance have been so back since roughly 2024, but honestly, I didn’t expect Rodrigo to fall for one, given she’s mostly stuck to musicians and actors in the past. But while it seems nice to be able to connect on a creative level with your beau, I also kind of understand the appeal of a man who simply…makes money. When you’re as rich and famous as Rodrigo, it’s probably nice to be with someone who will reach for the check once in a while—and without making you listen to their new demo.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a card-carrying tiresome socialist who fully believes all of Wall Street should be turned into an organic community garden ASAP (get on it, Mayor Mamdani!), but there’s a sick capitalist part of me that still kind of adores the idea of Rodrigo bypassing all the many, many music boys who must be lined up for her attention and getting with a guy into suits and salmon shorts. Then again, who knows…maybe Croonenberghs has an after-hours creative side that we have yet to find out about!
