Cooper Koch isn’t married, but he proudly wears a ring on his left finger.
While appearing on the Oct. 16 episode of Sirius XM’s Andy Cohen Live, the Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story actor revealed why he wore a wedding ring despite not being married.
After host Andy Cohen questioned him about the piece of jewelry, which sparked fans’ interest earlier this week after an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Koch explained that he was planning accompanying his brother Payton to the Emmy Awards when he was looking for accessories to complete his look. (Payton had been nominated for his editing on Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building.)
“We were getting ready and I didn’t have any jewelry on,” he recalled. “And I was with my boyfriend and we went into my room and I was looking through my jewelry, and I had this ring that was my grandfather’s, and I was like, ‘Oh, I should just wear this ring,’ and then we just like put it on my ring finger and it just kind of became this little like, I don’t know, romantic, protective mechanism.”
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“I just wanted to like trip people out a little bit and see what they would say,” Koch added.
While his boyfriend doesn’t wear a ring on his left finger, the actor assured fans that his partner was “very much committed to me as much as I am to him.”
“We have talked about that, and we do need to get him a ring, but it’s really more of just like a nice totem,” he smiled.
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Since the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story in late September, Koch has become a breakout star in the Ryan Murphy-led crime series. The Netflix show tells the real-life story of Erik (Koch) and Lyle Menéndez (Nicholas Alexander Chavez)’s murder of their parents José and Mary Louse “Kitty” Menéndez. It then follows them into the subsequent trial in the early ’90s.
The brothers murdered their parents in their family home in Beverly Hills in August 1989, with Lyle later calling 911 sobbing about finding their parents dead when they returned home from a movie.
While many have praised Koch and Chavez’s performances in the drama, the series has faced backlash from not only the public but also the real-life Menéndez brothers for its portrayal of them.
Miles Crist/Netflix
At the time, Koch reacted to the criticism and told Variety that he understood where people are coming from.
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“[Erik’s reaction] definitely affected me and it made me feel things,” he said. “I sympathize with him, I empathize with him. I get it. I understand how difficult it would be to have the worst part of your life be televised for millions of people to see. It’s so exposing. I understand how he feels and I stand by him.”
“In terms of approaching him and approaching the part, I just really wanted to do as much research and dig really deep into myself to really portray him with integrity and just be as authentic as possible to support him and also to support his family and all the people who stand with him,” Koch added.
