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A journalist for Axios and an aide to President Joe Biden opened up about their romantic relationship in an article published Monday.
Lovebirds Alexi McCammond and TJ Ducklo, a White House deputy press secretary, met on the 2020 campaign trail and began dating in November, PEOPLE magazine reported.
“We both realized we both felt the same way,” said Ducklo, 32. “We’re both really happy, and we wanted to do it the right way.”
McCammond, 27, had covered Biden’s presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020 and got to know Ducklo, the then-candidate’s press secretary.
At the time, McCammond was in a relationship and Ducklo was “super single,” the article said. The two became friends.
When Ducklo was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer in December 2019, McCammond accompanied him to his medical appointments.
The reporter said Ducklo’s diagnosis helped her realize how she truly felt about him.
“When TJ was diagnosed… I had a sense then how much he meant to me,” McCammond said.
“I’m just grateful that I get to be there for him now every step of the way as his partner.”
The pair said they immediately told their respective bosses about the relationship, with McCammond, a reporter at Axios since 2017, asking to be taken off the Biden beat.
She was reassigned to covering the progressive movement, including lawmakers in Congress, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, a spokeswoman for the website said.
“Switching beats was an easy decision,” McCammond told the mag.
Sometime after the November election, when both she and Ducklo were less busy, McCammond said it became clear “that our years-long friendship had the potential for something else.”
The couple don’t live together, but Ducklo frequently dog-sits McCammond’s mini-schnauzer, Marlin, the article said.
While the pair worry about how their relationship might be construed due to the nature of their jobs, they said they keep their work and love lives “totally separate.”
“I don’t know what she’s working on and she doesn’t know what I’m working on,” Ducklo said.
“It means a lot of calls in hallways, in bathrooms and while one of us is walking her dog.”
McCammond added that “TJ and I knew full well the unfair criticism our relationship might face.”
“But [we] knew that we weren’t going to let bullies get in the way of our own happiness.”
Ducklo agreed, saying the relationship “has really been the best thing that has ever happened in my personal life.”
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