Amber Riley Opens Up About Ending Her Engagement to Desean Black: 'When It Was Bad, It Was Terrible'

Amber Riley and Desean Black
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The 'Glee' star also talks about her decision to go public with her current relationship.

Amber Riley doesn't feel that she owes anyone anything when it comes to her personal life. In a candid interview with xoNecole, the 37-year-old Glee star opens up about calling off her engagement to Desean Black in April 2022 and her new relationship.

"The breakup was never going to stop me from finding love -- or at least trying," Riley said of her 2022 split. "I don’t owe anybody a happily everafter. People break up. It happens."

Of her past relationship with Black, Riley added, "When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was terrible, hunny. I had to get the f**k up out of there. You find happiness, and you enjoy it and work through it."

Riley and Black announced their engagement in November 2020 and during an April 2022 podcast appearance, Riley said she was "single." At the time, she said she wished her ex "the best," noting, "I don't have anything horrible or bad to say."

Riley has been in another relationship with an unnamed man for eight months, and shared a video of their time together on Valentine's Day for the first time. She told xoNecole that she chose to go public with the romance "partially because I was in the dog house. I got in trouble with him."

Without naming her boyfriend, Riley said that he is a father and is not interested in becoming a public figure.

However, relationship or not, the musician-actress feels empowered to speak up for herself thanks to her work in therapy.

"Therapy kind of gave me the training to speak my mind," she shared. "It’s not something we’re taught, especially as Black women. I got so comfortable in [doing so], and I really want other people, especially Black women, to get more comfortable in that space."

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