Lauren Cohan says she is in a relationship, and she is treating it as more than a private footnote. The The Walking Dead: Dead City star said her boyfriend helps make her work feel more meaningful, a rare personal update from one of the franchise’s longest-running names.
“They’re my heart,” Cohan told PEOPLE about her boyfriend, adding, “I’m very lucky to have a person who’s a cocktail of good qualities.” She said he drops by the set, though the visit usually ends fast because she heads to bed at 7:30 p.m. and, by her own account, “Anytime after 8 I become completely loopy.”
Lauren Cohan and Christian Carino
Cohan was previously linked to Christian Carino, and the two were photographed holding hands at a New York Rangers game in 2016. That older connection now sits beside a newer, more direct statement: she is currently dating, but she did not name the man. In a business sense, that leaves the story as a personal disclosure rather than a rollout of a public couple.
She also drew a clean line between independence and partnership. “I am so fiercely independent,” she said, before adding, “I think maturity has shown me you can [be] ambitious with your career and make time for a relationship and find that it improves your career.” Her conclusion was even plainer: “For me, it makes my career more meaningful.”
15 years in The Walking Dead
This October marks 15 years since Cohan first joined The Walking Dead franchise as Maggie, which helps explain why a personal update from her lands with more weight than a typical celebrity relationship note. She has spent those years inside one of AMC’s most durable television brands, and her current comments add another layer to a role already defined by long continuity.
On Sunday, Dead City used a flashback to Scott Wilson, who played Maggie’s father, Hershel, in the original series. Cohan said, “I’m so glad we had that flashback,” and added, “We’ve wanted to have a moment of looking back and having Maggie think about Hershel Sr. in the show.”
Dead City and Hershel Sr
Logan Kim, who plays Hershel, is part of that next-generation thread, and Cohan said, “Seeing [her son], Hershel, come into his own in that moment was the most powerful time for that to happen.” The show is still balancing memory and momentum, and Cohan’s comments fit that balance: she is open about a relationship, but she keeps the most obvious missing detail — her boyfriend’s name — out of the frame.
That is the practical takeaway for readers tracking her public life and her screen work at the same time. Cohan has drawn a line around what she will share, and for now the story turns on the fact that she is dating, not on who he is. The next real update will come from her own words, and her next screen move inside Dead City will matter more than any soft-focus relationship reveal.
