Hunter Schafer's complete dating history, from Rosalía to Dominic Fike

“These moments accelerate the relationship because you're immediately so vulnerable with someone,” he said. “It usually takes a long time. Some people don't fall in love until months or years after they meet. We developed an attraction – it sped everything up so quickly. We just really got to know each other so quickly.”

In February 2023, Schafer said Elle UK“I think we can be a safety net for each other. I feel like I've learned a lot about how much effort it takes to maintain that net. Because that's what it is, you know, especially in our world. But for me, it's really worth it.”

However, in July 2023, Fike confirmed the split in an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, saying he was “done with relationships right now” as he had issues with codependency.

Just one day later, a profile of Fike appeared in Los Angeles Times spoke of the relationship in the past tense.

“When I had a girlfriend, we stayed here,” he said. “I was able to make music around her, which was crazy. I was going through songs the other day and I found one that I did with her… I was like, 'Man, that was so cool.' But for me to say that — that I feel uncomfortable being alone — that's a bad thing. So I decided to be alone for a while.”

In August 2024, Schafer spoke in an episode of Alex Cooper’s Call her daddy Podcast. During their conversation, Schafer revealed that infidelity on Fike's part was an issue. She admitted that it “fundamentally changed” her in some ways.

“One reason the relationship ended was because I was cheated on for the first time,” she said. “He talked about it too – he writes about it in his songs – so it's OK to talk about it today and it's part of my truth. But that fundamentally changed me as a person. And it was this whole process of realizing that cheating has nothing to do with you at all. It has everything to do with that person and whatever kind of pain they're going through or whatever they're struggling with.”

She also shared that Fike was her first monogamous relationship with a man, having previously dated women and been in polyamorous relationships. She said her feelings about the breakup were complicated by the fact that she was the first trans woman Fike had dated, which led to insecurities when he cheated on her.

“This is a straight guy who's also in the music scene, and we're in a public relationship; he's dating a trans woman. He's completely straight; he's only ever dated cis women,” Schafer said. “And he's dragging me around, happy to be my boyfriend in front of the world, and people are saying horrible, mean shit because they're like, 'Oh, so he's gay?' He didn't care at all. … I wasn't nervous, but I was also head over heels in love and happy to do it.”

She continued: “As a trans woman with a man who has never dated [a trans woman] before, then it is [in] my brain. I knew it wasn't the truth…but my brain, because of the way I was socialized as a trans woman, and that was this crux of my life, so why life was so hard sometimes. I thought, 'Oh my God, is that it?'”

Schafer did not elaborate on the end of their relationship, saying, “What happened with that was between me and him, and I want to keep it to myself. [private]and I want to protect that.”

Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire, and elsewhere. Her first book, The lonely hunter, will be published in February 2022 by Dial Press.