While not much is known about Groff's first longtime boyfriend, he opened up about the relationship during an interview with FourTwoNine in May 2018, saying he kept it hidden for more than three years.
"I was sitting in Florence journaling, and I realized I had never once journaled about my boyfriend, and I had been in a relationship with him for three and half years," Groff recalled of the relationship, which came prior to them both coming out publicly. "I wouldn't even write about it in my journal because I was afraid somebody might read it. But then in Florence, I started one day just journaling about him and realized I never had before, and I started wondering, 'What is happening?' I knew in that moment I was going to come out of the closet."
He added: "I came back home and came out to my family first. And then my friends. Then I broke up with that boyfriend and moved out of the apartment we were sharing as 'roommates.'"
