Inside Frank Ocean's Secretive Love Life— Everyone He Is Rumored To Have Dated
Who was Frank Ocean's mysterious boyfriend for three years?
DFree / Shutterstock, Instagram Frank Ocean is an extremely private person and his dating life is no exception.
The beloved singer is known for long hiatuses from music and performing. During his time away, you will rarely see Ocean, whose real name is Christopher Francis Ocean, in paparazzi photos or even on social media. So, it’s no surprise that the Blonde artist’s love life is clouded in mystery. But he is not completely hidden from the public eye.
Here’s what we know about Frank Ocean’s relationship history.
Who has Frank Ocean dated? Details on his current and past boyfriends.
Ocean is rumored to have dated Memo Guzman and reportedly currently seeing musician Omar Apollo. But what do we know about their relationships?
Frank Ocean is rumored to be dating Omar Apollo since 2019.
Speculation began when an April 2022 episode of the Like a Virgin podcast dropped. Co-host Fran Tirado shared a story that shed light on their relationship.
“I was driving home [with] two friends of friends that are from Mexico, and they work in the music industry. One of them was friends with Omar Apollo, so we were talking about this new album [Ivory]. And I was saying, ‘It feels really Frank Ocean-y to me,’” she said. “And the guy looks at me, and he goes, ‘You know they used to date, right?’ They dated for three years, and they broke up, and this album, Ivory, is all about Frank.”
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Ivory dropped in April 2022, meaning they must’ve started dating in 2019. But people have spotted them together since the album dropped!
In August 2022, a fan, @oliviaaspina, on TikTok pointed out that Ocean and the 25-year-old Apollo were vacationing together in Italy.
Someone shared a video of Ocean on a boat, and the fan pointed out that Apollo posted the same boat on his story. She even went on to show that Apollo can be faintly spotted in the background of the video captured of Ocean.
Ocean was also spotted at one of Apollo's shows in March 2023. Like Ocean, Apollo identifies as queer which he clarified it in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I’m very open about it in my music and on Twitter,” he said. “But when it comes to identifying myself… It feels good to say queer. I don’t know. I’m complex.”
Memo Guzman was Frank Ocean’s boyfriend for three years, between 2016 to 2019.
Guzman was first publicly spotted with Frank Ocean in August 2017, attending the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC star Conor McGregor. The very next day, Ocean released his song Provider which opened with the lyric, “Memo finna start acting out if I don’t see him soon.” Fans then did some digging and learned that the two had been spotted together as far back as 2016.
Some fans pointed out that the lyric from his 2016 song Futura Free off of Blonde, “You must ain’t get the memo. I don’t cuff b------ no more,” refers to Guzman.
Guzman also posted a photo on Instagram of Ocean performing in Gothenburg, Sweden in August 2017. He edited the caption over a year later to read “baby.”
In January 2018, Ocean shared a photo on Tumblr of a half-covered face of a man who fans identified as Guzman. He adorned a hat that read, “IF YOU LIKED 2017, YOU’LL LOVE…2018.” People speculated that Ocean would drop his long-awaited album that year, but instead, he only dropped a cover of Moon River.
In an April 2019 interview from the 10th issue of the magazine Gayletter. They asked Ocean if he used dating apps, and he responded with more insight into their relationship.
“I’ve been in a relationship for three years. I definitely wasn’t using dating apps before then. I don’t think I would use dating apps now. I f--k with Marc Jacobs’ philosophy on that, so I wouldn’t rule it out, but it is a little hectic being a famous person on dating apps,” he said.
Ocean appeared to confirm his breakup with Guzman in a 2019 Tumblr post while responding to backlash he received from the LGBT community over his PrEP+ series of club parties in New York City—named after the HIV drug and meant to be an inclusive space. But people didn’t feel his approach was the best way to spread awareness.
Ocean explained in his post that the parties were designed to raise awareness while also hinting that he and Guzman had split. “My ex who I was with for several years didn’t know about [PrEP] when we first met at a gay club in LA,” he wrote. "Awareness isn’t always what we’d hope it would be."
The former couple still follows each other on Instagram. So, perhaps they are still on good terms!
What is Frank Ocean’s sexuality?
Frank Ocean confirmed he is queer in a July 2012 Tumblr post. Fans assume Ocean is either gay, bisexual or pansexual as the post discusses his first love, when he was 19, being a man.
“I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide,” Ocean wrote. “By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant…He wouldn’t admit the same.”
Three years after admitting his feelings to him, Ocean shared in the same post that the unknown crush confessed he had feelings as well but held them back because he was dating someone. Ocean gave mention of a girlfriend too.
“I reminisced about the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager..the ones I played when I experienced a girlfriend for the first time,” he wrote.
The post was supposed to be a liner note on his 2012 Channel Orange album since the hit song off the album, Thinkin’ About You, is a love song to a man. But after seeing speculation over his sexuality beginning to surface, he decided to release it early as an open letter.
After that album, he released Blonde, which also alludes to his bisexuality since “blond” and “blonde” have the same meaning but are gendered. In addition to that, his hit single Chanel also gave mention of his bisexuality, most obviously with the lyric, “I see both sides like Chanel.”
Ethan Cotler is a writer living in Boston. He writes on entertainment and news.