Laverne Cox Gushes About Finding Love In 2020: 'It Just Kind Of Happened'

Laverne Cox kicked off 2021 on professional and personal highs.

Cox, appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Thursday, revealed she’s happily in the throes of a new relationship. Though she didn’t share her new beau’s identity, she said the pair took things “really slowly,” and enjoyed a close friendship before committing to one another “around November [or] December” of last year.

“He’s a really great guy, and I didn’t expect it,” the “Orange Is the New Black” star and transgender rights activist said. “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.”

Cox went on to note that her new boyfriend “has never dated a trans woman before,” as was the case with two of her previous relationships. She plans to speak at length about relationships between cisgender men and trans women on “The Laverne Cox Show,” a new podcast launching in February.

Catch Laverne Cox on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” below.

“The womanhood of trans women is often disavowed,” she told DeGeneres. “A lot of people don’t see trans women as women. So the men who are attracted to [trans] women, people think they’re gay.”

“We need a guy who is famous and articulate to be able to talk about this,” she added.

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cox’s career has been in high gear. She executive-produced the 2020 documentary “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” now garnering awards season buzz. She stars alongside Carey Mulligan in “Promising Young Woman,” which has received near-universal praise from critics, and she’s set for a major role in Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” later this year.

Elsewhere in the interview, Cox noted that she has “high hopes” for President Joe Biden’s administration following Monday’s executive order that reversed a Trump-era ban on transgender military service.

“We have a very short window to really help people,” she said. “Yes, I want my community to be helped, but my community is [also] fellow human beings. ... So it is my hope that this administration will do everything they can.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.