The actor as a little boy. | Source: X/@colmandomingo
A future Emmy winner spent years learning that being fully seen could be both terrifying and freeing. Then one ordinary night, a silent glance with a stranger turned everything he believed about love into something real…
A Hollywood star once walked into a Walgreens for something ordinary and unknowingly stepped into the beginning of a love story that would follow him for nearly two decades.
But before the stranger outside the store became his forever person, the actor had already learned one life-changing lesson at home: love can make a person brave.
The “Euphoria” cast at the Season 2 Photo Call in Los Angeles, California on January 5, 2022. | Source: Getty Images
He Was Raised with the Kind of Love That Made Him Brave
Long before his name became familiar to viewers of “Euphoria,” the actor at the center of this story grew up in a family that made him feel deeply supported. In a September 2021 interview with The Advocate, he described his childhood as a nurturing one, saying he was loved by his mother, stepfather, sister, and brothers.
He also remembered his neighborhood as community-centric, a place where people showed up for one another.
That early sense of protection clearly mattered to him because he later said he could not have done everything he accomplished in life without the love and support he received while growing up.
The actor when he was younger smiling with a loved one, posted on April 12, 2026. | Source: X/@CinemaBurst
Still, being loved did not mean everything was simple. The actor shared that he had a speech impediment and saw himself as awkward, gangly, and sensitive when he was younger, but he always felt love around him.
His stepfather sometimes tried to toughen him up, even attempting to make him box. The actor recalled this with a laugh, but he admitted that fighting never felt like his way of moving through the world.
“I wasn’t about getting into fights,” he said. “I thought more about love and didn’t understand why people hated each other.” In time, his family and friends understood that this gentleness was simply who he was, and they embraced him for it.
The actor as a young boy with loved ones, posted on April 17, 2022. | Source: X/@colmandomingo
A 21st Birthday Outing Became a Life-Changing Confession
That foundation became especially important when he reached adulthood and had to share a truth he had been holding. On his 21st birthday, his older brother took him to a strip club, and the outing unexpectedly became the moment when he decided he had to come clean.
He described his brother Rick as “the epitome of masculinity,” which made the confession feel even more significant. Still, he knew Rick had to know the truth, so he told him he was gay.
The actor smiling for a photo as a little boy, posted on November 29, 2021. | Source: X/@colmandomingo
Rick’s reaction was tender in the quietest way. “He hugged me and told me that that was fine, he still loved me, and that he wouldn’t tell anyone,” the entertainer divulged.
Of course, in true sibling fashion, that promise did not hold forever. After the actor graduated from Temple University and moved to San Francisco, his sister Avery called with news: Rick had spilled the beans.
Avery was not upset that he was gay; she was only upset that he had not told her first, which is honestly about as loving and sisterly a reaction as one can get.
The actor posing for a photo with a loved one, posted on June 15, 2025. | Source: Instagram/kingofbingo
She told him to call his parents because she did not want them to find out the same way she did. So he called, and his parents told him they loved and accepted him, adding that they wanted to better understand him.
Then came one of the most moving moments in his story: Soon afterward, his mother came to visit him in San Francisco, and her reason was beautifully simple.
“She just wanted to make sure I was the same guy,” he shared. That one sentence carried all the tenderness of a mother who did not want distance, confusion, or fear to come between her and her son. During the visit, they walked through the Castro and passed a gay bar. Rather than avoid it, his mother wanted to go inside for a drink.
“She just wanted to know everything about me, and we had the best time,” he recalled. He described his mother as “the most fun-loving person” he has ever known, and the memory still feels like one of the sweetest windows into who shaped him.
He Entered Hollywood Openly – But on His Own Terms
Because of that unyielding acceptance, the actor said he was honest about his sexuality from the moment he began his career. At the same time, he never wanted that one part of his identity to overshadow his work.
“I don’t lead with the fact that I’m gay or any one thing except my talents,” he said. It was a clear and confident way of saying that his truth matters, but so does the full scope of who he is as an artist.
That confidence also helped him handle odd questions from the outside world. He recalled that years earlier, after he did a Spike Lee film, a reporter asked him how Spike felt about him being gay.
The question struck him as strange, but his answer was perfectly calm. He said he told the reporter that he did not know how Spike felt because they had never talked about it, adding that Spike was his friend and brother.
The actor believed the reporter seemed to assume that being gay had to be difficult. His own view is sharper and much more freeing: “If you believe it’s difficult, then it is.”
By now, the clues point to someone whose life has been shaped by talent, tenderness, family acceptance, and a very memorable romance.
The actor is Colman Domingo, the acclaimed star known to many fans for the ever-popular “Euphoria,” and other hits such as “The Running Man,” and more recently this year, “Michael.”
Colman Domingo at the premiere of “Michael” in Hollywood, California on April 20, 2026. | Source: Getty Images
Then Came the Ordinary Night in 2005 That Changed Everything
And for all the powerful moments in his life, one of the most cinematic began in 2005 outside a Walgreens in Berkeley, California. During a February 2024 appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” Domingo shared his love story in a way that sounded like a scene from a romantic movie.
He said he was living in New York and at the time was in Berkeley on a Sunday night when he went into Walgreens. He was only there to buy a facial mask for the night, but as he walked in, he saw a man walking out.
The man had beautiful hair, a lip piercing, and instantly caught Domingo’s attention. They looked at each other, and Domingo remembered thinking, “Oh my God.”
He was on the phone at first, but when he came back outside, the man was still nearby and talking to a young woman who seemed upset about something. The man kept looking at Domingo, and vice versa, and the actor wondered what exactly was going on because the woman was so animated.
Colman Domingo spotted out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 26, 2025. | Source: Getty Images
Domingo decided to get off the phone, seemingly hoping the moment might turn into something. But before it could, the man and the woman walked off down the street. There was still a spark, though. The mystery man kept looking back, and Domingo waved, but he just kept going.
Domingo was left completely dumbfounded. He wandered into a Blockbuster across the street and admitted he did not even know what he was doing.
Then he checked his watch; it was 8:03, a tiny detail that somehow stayed attached to the memory. He went back outside and wondered if the man might still be there. When he was not, Domingo thought maybe he would return the following Sunday and somehow see him again.
Colman Domingo and his husband posing during the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California on February 22, 2025. | Source: Getty Images
“I’m that kind of hopeless romantic,” he said. And honestly, that tiny confession makes the story even sweeter. Three days later, the plot took a very 2005 turn: Domingo was trying to buy a used computer and browsing Craigslist when he wondered whether those Missed Connections ads actually worked.
He said he used to read them on the subway, so he decided to look through them. On page two, he saw information that changed everything: Someone had written that they saw him outside Walgreens in Berkeley.
Colman Domingo and his husband at the 97th Oscars in Hollywood, California on March 2, 2025. | Source: Getty Images
The man had placed the ad for Domingo only two hours earlier. Domingo jumped up, realizing the post was about him. The ad described him by his faux hawk, which Domingo laughed about because, yes, it was 2005. That detail was enough for him to know he had found the stranger from Walgreens.
They met up three days later for their first date. Domingo said he was trying to be “a good boy” and go home, but the man asked if he could stay over.
Domingo agreed, but said they should just cuddle. They did, and in the early hours of the morning, while he thought the other man was asleep, Domingo said what was already sitting on his heart.
Colman Domingo and his husband at the Pre-Tonys Dinner in New York on June 10, 2023. | Source: Getty Images
“I think I love you and you’re about to change my life,” he recalled saying at 4 a.m. The line sounds almost too romantic to be real, but the years that followed proved he was not wrong.
The Mystery Man Became the Husband Who Helped Him Grow
That man, Film Producer Raúl, to be exact, became Domingo’s husband. In a November 2019 interview with The Advocate , Domingo said they had been married for 14 years and gave his husband a lot of credit for helping him become his fuller self.
Raúl and Colman Domingo at the 29th Critics’ Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California on January 14, 2024. | Source: Getty Images
“We are deeper into our relationship now than we’ve ever been, and I expect that to grow,” he explained. He described love as an ongoing journey where two people have to be willing to change directions together.
“You’re along for each other’s ride through life, and you have to be unafraid of changing directions,” Domingo said. He added that it helped that he and his husband wanted nothing more for themselves than to become the best people they could be, allow themselves to be free and unafraid, and help each other grow in their own spaces.
Raúl and Colman Domingo at the Ketel One Family Made Vodka Celebrates Filmmakers at the Official Gersh Agency Party in Park City, Utah on January 20, 2024. | Source: Getty Images
That is the kind of relationship advice that sounds gentle but actually takes a lot of courage. It is not about staying the same forever; it is about loving someone while both of you keep becoming more fully yourselves.
Leading up to 50, Domingo and his husband took that cue of freedom quite literally. They moved from New York City to Los Angeles, leaving behind congestion and noise for a different way of life.
Domingo said they had more space at the house they bought the previous year. There were trees, a pool, and a life that felt more open.
Colman and Raúl Domingo at the 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California on February 7, 2025. | Source: Getty Images
His Advice to Romantics Is Sweet, Simple, and Very Old-School
Years later, he still spoke like the same romantic who looked at his watch outside Walgreens and wondered whether destiny might return on another Sunday. In a March 2026 interview with WSJ. Style , he was asked what advice he would give to another hopeless romantic.
“My advice to a hopeless romantic is to get off your phone.”
Domingo explained that he had always believed love is “very analogue.” To him, love is something he could find walking down the street, having coffee, or simply looking up somewhere.
Colman Domingo speaking during the second annual Cocktails and Conversation event in Park City, Utah on January 20, 2018. | Source: Getty Images
“You can’t just sit back and wait for the person to come to you,” he said, adding that people have to make their chances happen.
The Real Love Story Is Bigger than One Chance Encounter
That advice lands differently when you know his own love story. Yes, there was a magical glance outside Walgreens, but there was also a Craigslist ad, a response, a date, a choice to stay, and a whispered confession before sunrise.
The romance is fate, but it is also follow-through. And that might be the real reason Domingo’s story feels so charming after all these years.
Colman and Raúl Domingo at amfAR Venezia in Venice, Italy on August 31, 2025. | Source: Getty Images
Before the awards, the acclaim, and the television and film roles that made him a familiar face to millions, Colman Domingo was a sensitive young man raised with love, accepted by family, and brave enough to live openly.
And the man outside Walgreens turned out to be part of that same story of becoming. He did not just become Domingo’s husband; he became the person Domingo credits with helping him live as a fuller, freer version of himself.
So the sweet love story in the headline is not just about a missed connection outside a store… It is about a man who was loved before fame, accepted before the world applauded him, and lucky enough to find a romance that began with one look, one ad, and one very bold leap of faith.