Common Splits From Girlfriend Angela Rye

Rapper Common and CNN correspondent Angela Rye have called it quits.

Rye confirmed the split to Page Six this week, saying, "We have and will always be friends. He is an amazing human being, and I'm a much better person because he's a part of my life. May we all keep loving and living."

The couple started dating in summer 2017 and were prominent fixtures at red carpet events, making their debut at the Creative Arts Emmys in September.

"There's a definite connection with Angela Rye," Common said on Bevy Smith's SiriusXM radio show, Bevelations, in October. "She's a wonderful woman. I will just say, I am dating. I'm happy right now—and she is an incredible human being."

"She's just a fun person, too. She honestly is about the mission and about the people," he said of Rye, who is a prominent activist. He said Rye taught him that "just because you are conscious and aware, don't mean you gotta not have fun. You still gon' kick it, because that's part of me, too."

The rapper also gushed in November that his relationship with Rye has made him more politically and socially engaged.

"I feel like I have to be more intelligent with the work and strategize more," he told Page Six of his partner at the time. "I have to listen more and go out and do more work. It is no time for sitting back now. This is the time to stand up, more than anything."

But after insiders pointed out that the news correspondent and activist "wasn't on his arm at the Oscars" on Sunday and was also absent at the fourth annual Toast to the Arts event Common recently hosted with the Ayars Agency, they speculated the couple may have ended their relationship.

Common walked the red carpet at the 90th Academy Awards solo before he took the stage to perform Oscar-nominated song "Stand Up For Something" alongside Andra Day.

In an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, the same day Page Six broke the news of their breakup, Rye had kind things to say about the former Oscar winner, but did not address their split at the time of the interview.

"From meeting Common I've definitely become a better human being," Rye raved, "and for that I'm grateful."

Common has not publicly commented on the breakup.

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