By Nadia Santiago

Updated 14 minutes ago, August 15, 2026

“I was in love from the moment I saw her photo,” Mamdani has said of his wife, Rama Duwaji. He screenshotted her Hinge profile before she’d matched him back, then planned a first date with shaking hands, calling himself “very much of a romantic.”

The whole thing started with crème brûlée. Rama Duwaji had mentioned loving it, so Mamdani built their first date around that one detail, and he’s said his hands were shaking while he planned it.

Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji pose for photos on moving day at Gracie Mansion in New York City on January 12, 2026. Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images.

They matched on Hinge in 2021, not long after he won his New York State Assembly seat in Queens. He’s called himself “very much of a romantic,” and after only a few dates he was sure it would last.

Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, pose for the press outside The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens after casting their votes on November 4, 2025. Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty Images.

Duwaji, born in Houston in 1997, is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and ceramicist whose work has run in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Vogue, and shown at Tate Modern. Her parents are from Damascus, and she’s kept a low profile even as her husband ran for mayor.

Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji celebrate his mayoral election victory at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater on November 4, 2025. Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images.

The couple married in stages: a private nikah in Dubai in December 2024, a civil ceremony at the New York City Clerk’s office in February 2025, and another ceremony in Uganda that July. They took the subway to the City Hall wedding on a rainy day, bouquet in hand.

Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji at City Hall during his ceremonial inauguration as New York City’s mayor on January 1, 2026. Photo by David Dee Delgado / Getty Images.

Mamdani won the 2025 mayoral race and was inaugurated on January 1, 2026. He’s talked about her at nearly every milestone, calling her “my incredible wife, Rama, hayati,” Arabic for “my life.”

At the former City Hall subway station on January 1, 2026, Rama Duwaji stands beside her husband Zohran Mamdani after he was sworn in as New York City’s 112th mayor. Photo by Amir Hamja / Getty Images.

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