Ava DuVernay is feeling the love, and she’s excited to share the good news.
At least, the Oscar nominee shared the good news with ESSENCE. While on the red carpet at the 98th annual Academy Awards, she was asked by correspondent Stacy Ike to fill in the blank: “Right now I am proud of myself for __.” She thought for a second and looked to her right at her date, whose hand she held tightly.
“Right now I am proud of myself for…coming to the Oscars with my honey, who I’ve kept hidden for a long time,” she said, adding, “but now he’s here” before breaking into a laugh.
It’s unclear what the name of her “honey” is, but it’s not the first time they’ve been out together. The beauty and her beau made an appearance together the night before the Oscars while at the CHANEL and Charles Finch Annual Pre-Oscar Dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
And, you may have missed it, but she said goodbye to 2025 by sharing a roundup of images of her favorite moments from the year on Threads, and one of them was a photo of herself close to this handsome mystery man.
“A few of the many magnificent moments of 2025. The hands I’ve held. The paths I’ve crossed. The places that have welcomed me,” she wrote.
“As I grow older, what’s expanded my heart most is connection with other passionate humans who share this miracle we call Life… from siblings to strangers. If we really watch, really listen, really stay present, we can feel it all. All of it. A grateful goodbye to this year. A new window awaits. What will we discover? What will we feel? What will we learn? Onward. xo”
Before this awards season, DuVernay was seen by many as a proud bachelorette. But she made clear a few years back that she was open to whatever, or make that whomever, was meant to come her way.
“I’ve gotten a bit stagnant in my relationships with people, the way that I’ve organized my life. We need to keep meeting new people, challenging relationships, moving out of relationships that don’t serve us anymore,” she told InStyle in 2022. “There’s that line people say, ‘No new friends.’ But there can be. I can’t mature in my work if I don’t open my life a bit more. I didn’t have kids by choice, and I’m not married by choice. I was able to embrace my career later in life, in my 30s. So I’m going to do what feels good to me, and I’m going to have fun.”
We love that DuVernay has found someone she is proud to show off on the biggest night in her industry. She and her honey look good!