Free Republic

Karoline Leavitt and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, met in 2022 before getting married three years later. The White House press secretary, 27, and Riccio, 59, welcomed their son, Nicholas Robert Riccio, nicknamed “Niko,” in July 2024. Six months later, the two wed days before President Donald Trump's second inauguration in January 2025. As the youngest person in history to hold her role, Leavitt is aware of the attention to her age — and her 32-year age gap with her husband. “I mean it's a very atypical love story, but he's incredible,” she shared during a February 2025 appearance on The...

When a friend opts to date someone who is old enough to be their parent, a common response is to see if the decision passes the “half their age plus seven” test. The rule, whose origins remain mysterious, has been passed down through generations as a way of justifying or, more commonly, pouring scorn on other people’s couplings. It’s fine for a 22-year-old to go out with an 18-year-old. It’s not ok for a 38-year-old to go out with a 23-year-old, however a 26-year-old would be fair game. The older you get, the wider the permissible age gap: a 50-year-old...

A Mississippi woman who married a man 61 years her senior says she’s ready to start a family with her new husband — despite the fact he’s a decade older than her own grandpa. Miracle Pogue, 24, met hubby Charles, 85, while working at a laundromat in Starkville in 2019, with the pair forming a friendship that turned romantic a year later. SNIP Miracle told Kennedy News of the moment she learned about her husband’s advanced age, saying: “I found out in conversation when we asked each other our date of birth and he said he was born in 1937.”...

Romantic couples with a large age gap often raise eyebrows. Studies have found partners with more than a ten-year gap in age experience social disapproval. But when it comes to our own relationships, both men and women prefer someone their own age, but are open to someone 10-15 years their junior or senior. While there is variation across cultures in the size of the difference in age-gap couples, all cultures demonstrate the age-gap couple phenomenon. In some non-Western countries, the average age gap is much larger than in Western countries. For example, in some African countries about 30% of...

A 37-year-old Washington man is accusing his local Spokane Starbucks of ageism after they reportedly banned him for hitting on a 16-year-old barista. According to KREM, Lucas Werner was banned from Starbucks after he gave an underage barista a note asking her out for dinner. In a Facebook post on one of Werner’s two accounts on Dec. 20, Werner claims he left a note reading, “Blonde with the red lipstick who thinks I’m funny, Are you hitting on me? I can only presume.” After leaving the note, Werner said he then went to the library to “work” (which he placed in quotation marks). On Dec. 22, Werner posted that...

Aaron Blake spotted a remarkable figure in some polling out of Iowa today: "Ron Paul wins more than 50 percent of 18-29 and 30-44 year olds, but less than 12% of 45-64 and 65+." A Republican operative who is not working for Paul emails to make the case that this is why Paul's poll numbers are overstated: Republican primaries and caucuses have never seen young voters show up and pick the winner. And: Caucus is people standing up & being seen where they stand...12 percent of over 45 may even be high...no neighbor wants people to know they're with this...

More women marrying much older men for added security October 20, 2011 By NASUKA YAMAMOTO / Staff Writer Young men in Japan facing difficulties landing full-time jobs in these tough economic times are also struggling to find women to marry. Single women say they prefer older men for marriage because they are more mature, are confident in making decisions?and offer financial security. Recent celebrity marriages involving much younger spouses have been in the news. But a small party one Friday evening in Tokyo's Ginza district for 10 people seeking marriage partners show the trend is spreading among ordinary Japanese. The...