Messy Gay News: Karamo Brown and Jussie Smollett Are Dating

On the final day of Pride Month, here’s one final bonkers gay story to delight and amaze you. Jussie Smollett and Karamo Brown are dating, per TMZ. The site published paparazzi photos of the two out on a date in Los Angeles alongside the news that they’re now together. One of the photos shows off Smollett, arm extended from a distance, cupping Brown’s chin. They reportedly had an “all day” date, which included grabbing lunch with Brown’s mother. The news of their newfound relationship comes the very same month that TMZ confirmed that Smollett broke up with his fiancé Jabari Redd, who he’d been dating for three years. The two had gotten engaged in 2025. Brown’s last public relationship was also an engagement, to Ian Jordan, which ended in 2020 after ten years.

Both Smollett and Brown have been beset by controversy throughout their careers, which makes their coupling a bit astounding. Smollett, who became famous for starring on Fox’s Empire, quite famously alleged in 2019 that he was the victim of a hate crime. He was then charged with filing a false police report as the Cook County State Attorney’s Office claimed that the hate crime did not happen. Those charges were dropped, then brought back; he was found guilty in 2022 but appealed that decision and ultimately got it overturned in 2024. In total, he spent just six days in jail.

Brown, meanwhile, has been the victim of less serious controversy. While his four co-workers on Queer Eye promoted the season, Brown dropped out of the press cycle at the last minute. He accused his Queer Eye co-hosts of bullying him. Later, he revealed that, while visiting the Queer Eye set, his mother overheard the other hosts gossiping about him, but he claimed she never told him what they said. And these men are dating? They should decide now who gets to write the tell-all memoir.