The message has been drilled into our heads for as long as we can remember: Diversity is our greatest strength. In 2012, former President Barack Obama said, “What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations.” The White House website even housed a page called Empowerment Through Diversity, which gave details about an Executive Order that Obama signed in August 2011. It announced a “government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce.” 

“He directed executive departments and agencies to focus on diversity and inclusion as a key component of their human resources strategies, and instructed that the agencies both promote diversity and remove barriers to equal employment opportunity,” the website read. “To implement the President’s diversity initiative, The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a government-wide diversity and inclusion strategic plan, and related guidance.  OPM has conducted more than 40 trainings on the development of agency-specific strategic plans and on the government-wide diversity and inclusion initiative.” 

Obama was well known for often speaking about the benefits of diversity and inclusion, and his administration made it clear that it was a priority for his presidency. But he certainly isn’t the only public figure to speak about the supposedly positive impact of diversity. He was just the first U.S. President to talk about it so passionately. Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted in 2017, “Our unity is our strength and our diversity is our power. We must remember that in the years ahead.” She was high-fiving a white person who was standing next to a black woman. 

In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a landmark legislation to “advance racial justice” and fight against California’s “systemic racism and bias” in the legal system. “California’s rich diversity is our greatest asset,” Governor Newsom said in the official press release. 

Beloved author Maya Angelou said, “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” But outside the world of politics and literature, there have been many celebrities and influencers who speak often about the necessity of diversity, and how wonderful it is for our society. 

In 2016, comedian Chelsea Handler posted a picture of herself with a black man on her Facebook page and wrote, “Diversity in the workplace. Look for black people, and then hire them.” It was difficult not to get secondhand embarrassment from the post, as this man was clearly used as a token minority to boost Handler’s engagement. 

Singer and body positive activist Lizzo, who is known for exposing her naked body to the world unsolicited, once said, “My movement is for everybody. My movement celebrates diversity. It's all about inclusion. It's all about getting our flowers and giving each person their own space to be an individual and speak up for that individuality." She has spoken many times about how important it is to have visible diversity in Hollywood, the world of music, and art in general. 

They mean one type of diversity only: racial and ethnic diversity. They couldn’t care less about diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of values.

But when these politicians and celebrities talk about the beauties of diversity, they never clarify what they mean by diverse. But we know they mean one type of diversity only: racial and ethnic diversity. They couldn’t care less about diversity of thought, diversity of background, diversity of values. They only want to appeal to the culturally Marxist, intersectional mob of woke nonsense, and that means skin color is the only factor that matters in diversity. 

When people are prompted to explain why diversity is important, and furthermore, a strength, they claim that diversity results in better innovation and more exciting ideas for the future of our country. We’re told that a room full of racially diverse people is the ticket to a bright future. Is there any concrete data to show us how diversity contributes to a better society?

Diversity Might Not Be Our Strength After All

The concept that "diversity is a strength" is a widely touted ideal, but a new peer-reviewed study challenges this narrative by suggesting that increased ethnic diversity may actually erode social trust in communities. The study, entitled "Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: A Narrative and Meta-Analytical Review," was conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University. Through a meta-analysis of 1,001 estimates from 87 different studies, they concluded that there is a "statistically significant negative relationship between ethnic diversity and social trust across all studies."

The primary aim of the research was to understand if "continued immigration and corresponding growing ethnic diversity" positively impacted community cohesion. Contrary to the dominant view, the study did not find evidence supporting the idea that growing diversity enhances community cohesion or social trust. Eric Kaufmann, a Professor of Politics at Birkbeck University of London, highlighted these findings, adding that even when controlling for factors like deprivation, higher diversity is significantly associated with lower trust in communities.

This research builds on previous studies that have arrived at similar conclusions. For example, Robert Putnam's influential study, "E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century," found that in ethnically diverse neighborhoods, trust tends to be lower, not just between ethnic groups but even among members of the same ethnic group. The research indicated that people in diverse communities tend to "hunker down," resulting in lower levels of altruism, community cooperation, and friendship.

Another study by Dr. Eitan Adres from the University of Haifa in Israel found that diversity also undermines a sense of social trust and common goals, potentially leading to sociopathic tendencies. This research pointed out that those who consider themselves "citizens of the world," influenced by values of globalization, consumerism, and individualism, were less likely to contribute to public goods, instead acting as "free riders."

Diversity, especially when it comes about through mass immigration, may actually pose challenges to social cohesion and community trust.

Researchers Neal and Neal have similarly indicated that diversity can destroy a sense of community. Their model suggests that communities that offer opportunities to develop respect for diversity are often not the same ones that foster a strong sense of community. According to them, when people form relationships with similar and nearby others, a different kind of social trust and community sense is established.

The cumulative findings from these studies challenge the often-repeated mantra that diversity automatically translates into societal strength. They suggest that diversity, especially when it comes about through mass immigration, may actually pose challenges to social cohesion and community trust. This is a complicated issue that involves multiple factors, but the data points to a need for a more nuanced conversation on the impact of diversity, rather than sweeping claims that it is unequivocally beneficial. It suggests the need for policies that not only promote diversity but also address the challenges it brings in terms of social cohesion and trust.

A Society Needs Common Ground To Develop Trust

Although research like this is useful, we don’t actually need it to know something that is glaringly obvious. When a society doesn’t have much in common, it’s much less likely that they will feel united and invested in one another. In a 2022 Vice panel called “Asian Americans Debate Model Minority & Asian Hate,” a group of Asians discussed issues such as assimilation and diversity. Commentator Vince Dao talked about why assimilation and social cohesion are actually good things. 

“I think assimilation is not just a great thing, it’s a necessary thing. No society can hold together where people have nothing in common, they don’t speak the same language, they don’t practice the same things,” he said. “On a broader level, when we’re talking about more big picture things, differences in race, culture, religion, all these things—people have fought wars, violent wars, and killed each other over these things for thousands of years. If America is to hold together, assimilation is just not good or bad—it’s necessary. I don’t think it’s going to be possible for America to survive as a stable functioning society if people don’t to some degree say, ‘Well, here’s what we commonly agree upon.’” 

Most of the other people on the panel were completely shocked (and visibly offended) by Dao’s thoughts. But Dao suggests that diversity is an idealistic, utopian idea that might make us feel warm and fuzzy, but in practice, it doesn’t really produce that many concrete benefits for society. 

It’s ironic that so many leftists in America point to the Scandinavian countries in awe, praising their generous welfare state, “free” healthcare, and luxurious maternity leave. They completely ignore the fact that these Scandinavian countries are racially homogeneous. For example, in Finland, more than 91% of its population is Finnish. The Scandinavian countries that have been struggling in recent years with crime are the ones that have opened their borders and wrestled with increasing levels of diversity (such as Sweden). 

If we're going to survive, we need to focus on the things that unite us; we need to have a shared sense of culture, values, and vision for the future.

These Scandinavian countries have such robust welfare states (and thus pay extremely high taxes) largely because there's a deep sense of cohesion and familial feeling among fellow countrymen. Put simply, they don't mind paying such high taxes because they feel like their neighbor is their brother.

In the United States, we have the most diverse racial makeup in the world. The issue is, we discourage people from assimilating, and we don't promote our unique culture, mostly because we're afraid of offending immigrants or people who are hell-bent on rejecting everything our country has to offer. If we're going to survive, we need to focus on the things that unite us; we need to have a shared sense of culture, values, and vision for the future. Racial homogeneity is not possible anymore for the U.S., and that's okay. But we need to find some kind of way to find homogeneity elsewhere, and that is most likely going to happen with American culture. The problem is, many people on the left are disgusted at the idea of embracing our American culture because it has been deemed racist, bigoted, etc. It's funny how American expats are required to learn the language and follow the customs of the country they move to, but immigrants who move to America are discouraged from doing the same. If we continue along this path, the ever-increasing diversity in our country will be our downfall.

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The “First Partner” of California and wife of Governor Gavin Newsom said she requires her sons to play with dolls (“even if they tear the head off of them”) and replaces male protagonists in their favorite stories with “she” and “her.” Ironically, there is no mention of forcing her girls to run outside and get physical, hit each other, or play with toy guns. The message she sends is clear: Girls, you are the superior sex. Boys, be more like girls. 

Her comments on gender and parenting expose an ideology that pathologizes masculinity, dismisses motherhood’s natural responsibilities, and treats biology as an obstacle to be engineered away. The problem is not that the governor’s wife made provocative statements, it’s that she said exactly what modern feminists believe. These young men (now ages 15 and 10) are being told every day that their very essence is less valuable than their sisters. Failing to recognize the healthy biological impulses of her own children, she drives their admiration to those who will acknowledge their worth. 

Women like Newsom insist on passing down this insidious strain of feminism to their own children. One that obliterates the natural bonds of affection that keep the threads of society intact. For the Newsoms, the sexes are interchangeable. Neither woman nor man is endowed with unique gifts and attributes that contribute to the healthy development of a child, or a civil society. Like most progressives who subscribe to androgynous egalitarianism, distinctions and biological truths don’t matter to them.

The message she sends is clear: Girls, you are the superior sex. Boys, be more like girls. 

California’s governor seems to reinforce his wife’s questionable parenting tactics. In fact, he says that the “50/50” approach to caregiving is “the issue of our time” and “the answer to so many of our problems that exist in the world.” Both parents begrudge the fact that women, on average, spend 39 days more per year caring for children. The horror! Indeed, Gavin calls the statistic “ominous.” 

Traditional roles for fathers and mothers are not societal constructs. They are the natural order of life that begets thriving and well-adjusted children and in turn, a flourishing civilization. Fathers typically offer the provisions and protections necessary for survival and stability like an income, a home, and structure. They are the ones to pass on healthy risk taking to their children, sons and daughters. They are more likely to say “shake it off” and instill resilience. Mothers offer sustenance (literally for the first year or more of a child through breastfeeding) and nurturance. They are the soft place to land, the one that tends to soothe hurt feelings and bruised egos. Upsetting these natural functions can lead to dysregulated and dysfunctional family dynamics. 

According to Mrs. Newsom, disparities in the job market are the result of the proverbial “war on women,” not a natural byproduct of the inherent sociological differences between the sexes. She has proposed legislation that will hold “tech companies accountable and be a force for good in our kids and family’s lives,” so that they “don’t go down this rabbit hole of very, very dangerous and limiting narratives around ultimately what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a boy.” Biology and human nature must be corrected, according to Mrs. Newsom. Even in her own family. 

Biology and human nature must be corrected, according to Mrs. Newsom. Even in her own family. 

The First “Partner” of California demonstrates the worst of feminine instincts: performative virtue signaling, condescension, and disrespect for the men in her life. Gavin Newsom seems to have given his wife everything she could ever want. Status, ethically questionable funding for her political nonprofit, and most importantly—although she may not perceive them to be as such—four beautiful gifts in the form of her children. Yet she can’t even muster the decency to call herself “First Lady,” acknowledging the fact that she is, indeed, his wife.

There is nothing less attractive than an ungrateful woman. Men created civil society for women and children, yet feminists insist on destroying the very thing that has protected and provided for them for eons. 

At a time when fertility rates have crashed to an all-time low, it is the musings of women like Siebel Newsom that will ensure the destruction of civilization as we know it. She has said she doesn’t know if our country is “ready for First Partner.” Let’s hope we don’t have to find out. 

Jennifer Galardi is a senior policy analyst in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing.

Against this backdrop, enter our Coachella hero and heroine. A couple so demure, so unassuming, calmly poised amid the chaos. The man in a backwards cap and light-wash jeans scarfs down his ramen noodles. The woman, jacket wrapped round her waist, shovels an unidentifiable finger food down her gullet. Precious moments captured in their oh-so-candid TMZ photo. Unified, the couple model their red plastic cups in frame, as if to say, ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’

And just like that, the façade quickly lifts, and we realize this isn’t a spontaneous moment between a fraternity brother and his sorority sweetie. This is a highly choreographed tableau involving formerly popular pop princess, now turned amateur astronaut, Katy Perry and her new (still married yet legally separated) beau, Justin Trudeau. Yes, the former leader of the second-largest country and G7 nation, Canada.

You may be asking, “What’s the big deal?” Let this middle-aged couple cosplay away. But sadly, this is not just about two people dressing up and going out, but rather a pattern of performative politics that has metastasized for decades now.

Take the red solo cups. People were quick to call Trudeau a performative hypocrite for posing with a plastic cup. Under his leadership, Trudeau introduced and instituted a nationwide ban on single-use plastics, forcing Canadians, coast-to-coast, to adhere to these edicts or face up to thousands of dollars in fines.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this couple’s penchant for performative politics. They may not have invented it, but they are damn close to perfecting it.

What is Performative Politics?

There was a time when performative politics was so ubiquitous that it was like the air that we breathed. It was here, there, and everywhere, every time a high-brow politician donned a cowboy hat and kissed a baby or gladhanded at a fair while holding a corndog. Every time a celebrity spouted off at the Oscars about ‘environmental consciousness’ in between their flights operated by a private jetliner. You saw it there.

And believe me, it still exists, but we’re starting to see the cracks. Once upon a time, Americans would’ve just looked the other way if powerhouse Oprah Winfrey tried to sell us her weight loss plan while simultaneously taking a GLP-1 jab. Not today. We’re sick of symbolism over substance, slogans over sincerity. Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry have not gotten the memo.

Trudeau and the Truckers

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau built an entire career capitalizing on political branding. A self-described male feminist, Trudeau put a premium on visual effects in the public square, often landing him in hot water. Whether it was failing to declare over $200,000 in government funds for his lavish vacation, calling out racism while failing to disclose his own past of wearing blackface, or declaring that Canada welcomed all immigrants before quickly reversing that law to say, ‘Canada needed to slow the population growth.’

But no action of Trudeau’s epitomized performative politics more than his treatment of Canadian truckers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau touted himself as a paragon of personal liberties, but that all came crashing down. His government implemented vaccine mandates and travel restrictions that ignited fierce opposition and fueled the Freedom Convoy protests, a series of protests and blockades in Canada during the pandemic aimed at opposing vaccine mandates for truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. Rather than seeking meaningful dialogue to address the concerns of the protesters, Trudeau tarred them as ‘racists and misogynists.’ He seized their money, froze their private and business bank accounts, and invoked emergency powers, a move later rebuked by a federal court. For all his bluster about advancing civil liberties, Trudeau brought the force of the federal government down on his own citizens, quelling dissent through might. But he’s not the only guilty party in this couple…

Katy Perry: Activism as Aesthetic

Katy Perry knows a thing or two about cozying up to power. Today, she’s the girlfriend of former PM Trudeau. But she has always fancied herself a political actor and a ‘champion for women.’ She endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2015, saying she was like a ‘phoenix rising’ and that Clinton ‘embodied unconditional love.’ She publicly backed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. All in the name of bettering the world for women, but there’s just one glaring problem with that. Perry’s performance. She notoriously says one thing, while her actions point to something else entirely.

Currently, Katy Perry is facing a public backlash and police investigation after comments from actress Ruby Rose, who alleged that Perry sexually assaulted her at a club in Australia. Perry denies the allegations, but, nonetheless, these are very damning accusations. Critics are quick to point out Perry’s history. Previously, a former TV host claimed Perry had publicly touched her inappropriately and attempted to kiss her at an industry event. Perry, on national TV, shamed an American Idol contestant when she found out she had multiple kids by saying she "laid on the table too much." Critics also point out disappointment with her work with music producer Dr. Luke, amidst his drugging and rape allegations by fellow pop star Kesha. Finally, her bizarre behavior was put on blast as she rode Jeff Bezos’ multi-million-dollar rocket up to space to take selfies. An act that resembled more Zoolander’s ‘Blue Steel’ than Sally Ride.

The Formula is Wearing Thin

For years, politicians and celebrities, just like Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry, hid behind performative politics. They kept doing it because it worked. But overexposure has a way of ruining even the best cons. However, I believe that we may be witnessing the final curtain call on this con. And we could have Trudeau and Perry to thank.

The merging of politics and pop culture culminated in the relationship of two of its most performative proponents, which could be just what’s needed to collapse the entire system. Audiences are more skeptical than ever. With greater access to politicians' and celebrities’ actions through social media, we see through the sham more clearly. And with corporate media no longer serving as the ultimate gatekeepers of all news, we can see with our own eyes whether a public figure’s actions line up with their words.

So now we find ourselves in this pivotal moment.

A Rare Bipartisan Agreement

Trudeau and Perry may single-handedly be able to accomplish something together that few politicians and celebrities have ever been able to manage. They could align all sides of the political aisle in agreement on one key issue. A Pew Research poll asked Americans to list words that describe U.S. politics today, and majorities pointed to words like “Chaos,” “Messy,” “Hypocrisy,” and “Circus.” I believe the question is no longer whether performative politics works, but rather when it will come crumbling down. And with their powers combined, I believe Trudeau and Perry can collectively tire us of show-activism once and for all.

Sure, this couple didn’t invent performative politics, but they have come to embody it. He from the podium, she from the stage. When even the most polished practitioners can no longer make the act feel convincing, we all start to see the cracks of light peek through. The red Solo cups, the carefully curated activism, the choreographed relatability. At a certain point, the performance doesn't persuade; it wears thin. And if performative politics is finally reaching its breaking point, we all owe a great deal of gratitude to Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry for not just being its willing participants, but the key agents of its final demise.

This is a comeback story, but it could've just as easily been a cautionary tale. When I sit down with Carano, she's less than three weeks out from one of the most anticipated fights in women's combat sports history, leaner than she's been in years, sharper in every sense, and positively glowing. 

The End Or The Beginning?

In early 2021, at the peak of the cancel culture era, Disney fired Carano from her acclaimed role as Cara Dune on The Mandalorian after she criticized tyrannical COVID lockdown restrictions on social media. The outrage machine descended immediately and Lucasfilm released a statement calling her posts "abhorrent" and confirming she would not be returning to the franchise. For a woman who had spent her life building something extraordinary, first as a trailblazing MMA fighter who helped open the door for an entire generation of female athletes and then as an actress carving out a rare niche in Hollywood action, it was meant to be a finishing blow. It almost was.

She told me what followed were some of the darkest years of her life. She sold her home in Hermosa Beach, got an RV, and drove. The work dried up. The people she thought would call mostly didn't. The stress piled onto her body in ways she could eventually see in her bloodwork: pre-diabetic levels, cortisol through the roof, a body quietly staging a revolt. "2024 was not looking so good," she tells me. "The depression, and kind of just completely lost. Like, what am I supposed to do? I'm trying my hardest, but nothing's working. I'm in the desert. The questions I was asking were questions other people were wanting to ask. We got to the point where we couldn't ask, and that was a really scary time."

The surprising turning point came through a naturopath in Montana who did something simple: she took Carano's blood work and actually showed her what was happening inside her body. The results were a map of the last few years. "It was pre-diabetic. The cortisol and it was all these horrific things," she says. "She showed me what was going on in my body." After years of her body bearing the full weight of the stress and the loss and the uncertainty, someone finally looking underneath the surface was exactly what it took to start healing.

Another surprise followed. In October 2024, Elon Musk's legal team came calling. In February 2025, she filed suit against Disney. By August 2025, the case had settled, and what happened next is the part that still seems to delight and baffle her in equal measure. Disney released a statement unlike anything she said the company had ever put out before, one that acknowledged her work, her professionalism, and the respect of her directors and co-stars. "Nobody covers this," she says, bemused. "I told this to The Hollywood Reporter journalist and they were like, yeah, nobody's covering this. But if you put the two statements Disney made next to each other, what they said when they fired me and what they said at the settlement, the contrast is just mind-blowing."

Batting A Hundred

When Carano talks about the years that cost her so much, there's no bitterness. She has done the interior work of processing it, and the result is a woman who can speak about one of the most painful chapters of her life without being consumed by it.

She is also, it has to be said, someone who feels vindicated. "Back then it was called conspiracy theories," she says with a laugh. "And I'm like, with my conspiracies, I'm batting a hundred right now." What she was asking, she insists, was never as radical as the reaction made it seem. "The questions I was asking were questions other people were wanting to ask. We got to the point where we couldn't even ask, you know, or counter the narrative, or even make a joke. Comedians suffered for it. People just stated facts that people didn't like." She shakes her head. "That was a wild time. It was not that long ago."

The cultural reckoning with that era, she thinks, is still playing out in ways people don't want to acknowledge. "I think a lot of people now are taking on big causes because they have shame about how they acted during that time," she says. "They don't want to talk about who they became during those years. So they're like, no, no, we're really good people, look at us sticking up for this and this." She lets that sit for a moment. "People want to act like it didn't happen. But it did. And I feel pretty clean-hearted, because I feel good about what I did."

She also points out a pattern she found herself unable to ignore. "Sex discrimination in Hollywood is sadly a real thing, because I've seen a lot of women lose their jobs. Even women I didn't agree with."

"The internet always wants you to be involved in its problem whether it has anything to do with you or not."

As for the people she worked with most closely on The Mandalorian, the ones the internet seemed determined to cast as her adversaries, she is clear. "I never had a problem with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. I thought they were always wonderful. There's a lot of stuff I can't even share. But those are two good human beings that I respect, and they respect me." She gives a small shrug at the outrage this tends to generate online. "The internet always wants you to be involved in its problem whether it has anything to do with you or not."

It's a posture, she admits, that not everyone understands. But it's consistent with how she's carried the whole chapter. "I do have pain in my heart for people I lost during that time, people I still think deserve justice and I pray for that. But as far as how people were toward me, I'm not good at holding grudges."

The Harder Thing

Her legal victory is a satisfying ending to one chapter, but Carano has never been someone who sits still for very long. She's already working towards another win. But before we get into her much-anticipated fight with Ronda Rousey on May 16th (which will be streamed live on Netflix, the platform’s first-ever MMA event), we have to talk about the physical transformation Carano has undergone, first, because it's incredible and, second, because it's inseparable from everything else.

"I was hiding from the world for a long time."

Since September 2024, she has lost a significant amount of weight that she won't share just yet, saving it for what will clearly be a dramatic reveal. "People are going to be like, I didn't know she was that heavy," she says with a laugh. "It's going to be a little embarrassing. But life is embarrassing; might as well just lean in." For years she had been showing up to fan expos in strategic layers, furry ponchos and boots and a hat, wearing it all so the cameras couldn't quite catch her. "I was hiding from the world for a long time."

She has her own thoughts on the body positivity conversation. "I do believe there should be all sorts of different sizes that are beautiful," she says. "But here's the thing: what is ultimately beautiful is what is healthy." Then, after a beat: "Food is one of the most abused drugs. People use it to hide from the world. And I think a lot of the people who use food, like I did, they're actually taking it out on themselves because they don't want to take it out on others. They're usually very sensitive people."

She's also honest about the seduction of shortcuts. "I thought about just going and getting that procedure that suctions the fat and forms your body," she admits with a laugh. "But I knew it wasn't going to teach me what I needed to be taught. If you don't learn how to take care of yourself, you're just going to end up back in a bad place." So instead, she did the harder thing, in the form of a full professional fight camp.

"Every morning I wake up at three in the morning, and I'm thinking about this fight," she says. "You have to get up every morning. You have to train, you have to do the things that are hard. You have to diet. You have zero life." She even turned down acting work to be here. Everything else is by the wayside. "But I would have never gotten where I'm at now without this."

The result is a woman in film shape, in fight shape, and by her own account in better shape mentally and physically than she has been in years. "This fight is pure passion," she says. "It made me dig really deep, deeper than I would have ever." A stepping stone, she calls it, back to the thing she really isn't finished with yet. "The ultimate goal is to get back to storytelling, which I think has a longer lifespan. It's also so powerful and it's something that I feel like I've got unfinished business and I haven't even tapped into my potential there."

Before Hollywood Knew Her Name

Most people know Carano from The Mandalorian, or from the lawsuit, or from the wave of renewed attention that comes with a comeback this dramatic. Fewer know the origin story, and they should, because it's a good one.

She grew up as the athletic middle child in a family where her sisters were the prom queens. "I was more like, really good at sports and activities," she says with a self-deprecating smile. "I didn't bloom." At nineteen she was in Las Vegas, partying hard, aimless, grieving friends lost to overdoses and violence. "One of my friends got taken out and shot in the head in the desert. Another got stabbed thirty-one times by somebody else I knew. We were in a really tough environment."

One person who helped pull her out of that environment was a young man named Kevin. He decided to honor a friend who had died of heart failure by signing up for Muay Thai, and three months later Gina walked into the same gym. Six months after that, they were both fighting in small, scrappy venues. She was a natural from the start. "It's hard to explain, but as soon as I started really excelling, people just started putting a camera on me," she says. "I was just doing something that was keeping me away from drugs and alcohol. But my career took off into acting, and he kept going into fighting." She and Kevin went their separate ways for a time, each chasing something different.

At the time Carano entered the sport, there was essentially no women's MMA scene to speak of. No female roster in the UFC, no big paydays, no roadmap to success. "It was literally just me doing something I was passionate about that kept me on the straight and narrow," she says. "It garnered a lot of inspiration and attention. And then I caught the eye of Ronda Rousey, and she became who she became." Rousey has credited Carano for opening the door for female fighters to be seen as entertainers and not just athletes, just in time for Rousey to walk through it.

What set Carano apart during that era wasn't only her ability to win fights, but also that she refused to adopt the aesthetic common to women in combat sports, the toughened-up, masculine presentation she'd watched female athletes default to throughout her life. She made a conscious choice from day one to stay fully herself: feminine, glamorous, and absolutely dangerous. "You can still be a female and love all the things and be feminine," she says. "It's actually adorable. Women are powerful. They don't have to be like men to be powerful." She changed the visual language of the sport by simply being herself.

"Women are powerful. They don't have to be like men to be powerful."

As for acting, she never planned it. People dropped comments here and there, but she didn't have an agent angling for Hollywood. "If that's going to happen, somebody is going to come find me and give me a job. That's how it's going to happen." The person who came was filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, one week after her fight with Cyborg, while she was still licking her wounds. He reached out to her seemingly out of the blue.

"My mom was so cute, she was like, honey, do you want me to drive you? You know how directors can be. And I was like, Mom, come on, I'm fine." She laughs. "I'm a fighter. I can take care of myself."

That fateful meeting was the beginning of one kind of life, and the end of another. Days in the gym, small venues, and the version of herself that had walked in at nineteen with nothing to lose was receding in the rearview mirror. Kevin stayed in the world she was leaving. And for a time, that distance was just something they both lived with until fate had other plans.

A Decade In The Making

Now, on the other side of careers that neither Carano nor Rousey could have fully predicted, they finally meet. Most people expected the signature Rousey they knew: the trash talk, the scowl, the psychological warfare, but instead we've seen a much sweeter version of Rousey, asking for Carano's autograph and singing her praises. "She created her controversy with other people but with me, she's just been excited," Carano explains. "I think she's enjoyed the training process more, sharing the ring with someone she genuinely wanted to fight." She pauses. "And so have I."

"It's got a pleasant energy to it," Carano says, "because it's something that neither one of us needed to do, but want to. That's a totally different animal." No bills to pay, no rankings to chase. Just two legends who want this, on their own terms, for their own reasons.

"It's something that neither one of us needed to do, but want to."

For Carano specifically, the fight is one final, definitive statement. She had, she says, given up on fighting five years ago. She thought she'd closed that door for good. "Fighting just gets in you, and unless you get it all out of your system, it'll stick in there," she says. "It did stick in there until five years ago. And then I thought I hard-closed the door and was enjoying The Mandalorian and I was like, okay, this is awesome." And then life had other plans. "You just never know what's going to happen."

The Man Who Didn't Blink

If time found a way to finally bring us the fight that never was, it also found a way to bring Gina and Kevin back to each other for good. When I ask about him, her whole face changes. "I've known him since I was 19. He's my first love. And I'm just as in love with him now, if not a hundred times more."

He was by her side when the Disney blowup happened in 2021, and Carano says he didn't hesitate. "He didn't blink. He already understood the world," she says. "I was naive when all this stuff was going down. But Kevin was locked in." The paparazzi and stalkers were outside their Hermosa Beach home, so they sold the house, got the RV, and drove. Over the course of their relationship, he proposed four times, but Carano kept redirecting. "Wait, I don't like how you did it. Try again. Surprise me next time." She shakes her head telling the story. "I was all over the place." They had set January 1, 2022 as a kind of deadline, a date to make a decision. When the morning came, he said he already knew his answer. "And I was like, okay. Let's do this."

There was no ceremony, just the courthouse and a bright pink dress, black army boots, and their own invented last name, chosen together. "He wasn't attached to his name for reasons," she says. "And I didn't want him taking mine. So we made up a name." She pauses. "I didn't realize he needed that commitment. And I didn't realize I needed it either. It was the best decision I've ever made."

Kevin is also an artist, a caricaturist with a particular gift for capturing not just the unique character of every face but also what’s under the surface. And she’ll tell you that it was learning to truly see each other fully, including the hard years and the wrong turns, that finally made it work. "The trick was, I think, we had to forgive each other for the years in between," she says. "We're not throwing anything in each other's faces moving onward. We're going to forgive each other for what we've done and start a new life. And it really has been like a clean slate."

Unfinished Business 

You could talk to Carano for hours, and I honestly wanted to, but she has a fight to prepare for, press conferences, and projects in the works that aren't ready for the spotlight just yet, so we start to wind down. She told me after the weigh-in comes the cheeseburger she's been dreaming about since fight camp started, and after that another story begins.

She already knows what it looks like. "I want to act again, then direct. I feel like I've been a part of the biggest and the smallest productions and I see where people go wrong and where they go right," she says. "The hardest part is finding a story you're going to be able to live with for years. Like this fight, I'm creating a painting. At some point the fight is going to come and I'm going to have to leave the canvas, and it's going to have to sit there. I'm going to have to write it myself. More than likely."

Our conversation eventually finds its way to the iconic Rocky movie, and of course she's a fan. She says she plans to watch it before her fight. The symmetry is almost too good. The fighter who became an actress who wants to become a director, drawing inspiration from the man who wrote and directed the defining film about getting back up after you’ve been knocked down. 

When I ask her what has kept her grounded through all of it—the fight, the lawsuit, the comeback—the answer comes easily. "I check in with God all the time," she says. "I don't necessarily pray for victory. I just pray that His will be done through this process. I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be, which gives me freedom and confidence going into this very hard thing. He has got my back no matter what."

"This is the best I've ever felt."

There is a particular kind of freedom in that kind of faith, the freedom to walk into hard things without needing to control how they turn out. She has fought for that freedom in every sense of the word. And when I ask her simply how she feels, standing on this side of all of it, she doesn't miss a beat.

"I feel like I'm blooming now. I love this age. I have a husband. I have goals. This is the best I've ever felt."