Laverne Cox is happy in love.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Emmy-nominated actress and activist opens up about finding love with her "insanely hot" new boyfriend — and the lessons she's learned from her past relationships.
"It's scary, but I love love. After my last relationship ended, I was heartbroken and devastated," Cox, 48, says of finding love again after her split from Kyle Draper in 2019. "It's beautiful that you can love again, that you can heal that grief with time, and then move on to something else, something that's an even better situation for me and even more fulfilling."
The two are keeping their relationship out of the public eye for now and taking things "day by day," Cox says. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future, so we're just staying present, and we're having fun for now. We're just going to see where it goes. And I love that we're approaching it this way."
According to Cox, her new man "is so insanely hot" — and has a "beautiful soul."
"He's just so kind and funny, and we've laughed and had just the best time," she says. "He's not playing any games. He's just himself, and he's kind and sweet and real and funny and awesome. And he's 20 years younger than me, as well. So that's a whole thing. I always date younger men."
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As for what life lessons she's learned that she's applying to the budding romance?
"What I learned in [my] last relationship is that I can combine a really great physical connection with an emotional connection, because they had been not always fully combined in past relationships," she says. "I can have this great physical thing with love and these things can come together. I learned that I can be vulnerable in every aspect of myself. I'm taking that into the new relationship."
"Also, I don't think I want to traipse him around on social media," she admits. "I definitely have no plans on being public with this one. With my last relationship, it just felt organic. But I think I don't want to do that this time, for a lot of different reasons. So you will not be seeing photos of him on Instagram!"
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Last month, the former Orange Is the New Black star made a virtual appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she opened up about falling in love last year, admitting that she didn't "expect it" amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"Laverne is in love again. It feels amazing. Love is an incredible thing. It's literally this chemical thing that's awesome," she said. "He's a really great guy. I didn't expect it. I thought he was just going to be this hot dude I was going to be hanging out with, and then it just kind of happened."
The actress said the two took their relationship slow and only recently started exchanging "I love you's."
"We've been hanging out for six months," she said. "It went really slowly. The word love just sort of happened around November, December."
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