White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and her husband are causing online chatter after a holiday photograph of the couple was shared on Threads.
The 28-year-old Trump administration official is married to 60-year-old real estate developer Nicholas Riccio, and the couple’s age gap has been the talk of the town since their 2025 wedding, which was six months after their son was born.
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Leavitt and her husband are posed in front of a fireplace in the photograph, and the press secretary wore a long-sleeved, black evening gown with a large black bow on the hip. Riccio sported a black tuxedo, but after the picture was shared on Threads, users zoomed in on his hand.
Riccio appeared to have a Band-Aid wrapped around his pinky finger and noticeably darkened hair, details that sent social media back into a frenzy over the couple’s age gap — with some even drawing Trump comparisons. One user joked that Leavitt’s husband looks like he could be her dad. “Whoever you are, this is rude. I hope her dad sues you for calling him her husband.”
“Glad he’s out of the nursing home for the holidays,” added one, while another agreed with multiple users when they replied that Riccio looked old enough to be Leavitt’s grandpa. “Old enough to be her grandfather lmao. Disgusting.”
View on Threads
One user noted that Riccio was wearing a Band-Aid. “Is his hand bandaged too?”
Another user asked about his hair, “Is he dyeing his hair now?”
A third critic asked, “Did grandpa get photoshopped again?”
Yet another person implied she was trying to turn him into Trump, “Next, he’ll be wearing orange makeup.”
Leavitt opened up about the age difference between herself and Riccio during an episode of the podcast “Pod Force One,” and after host Miranda Devine asked her if she could find boys her age who are mature enough, Leavitt said, “Honestly, no.”
“If you want to know the truth, but no, he is amazing, and we met during my congressional campaign,” she continued. “A friend of mine at — who owns a restaurant is also a mutual friend of my husband’s, and he invited my husband to my event at his restaurant, and we met, and we were acquainted as friends for quite some time, but then of course we — we fell in love, and, uh, here we are today.”
She also noted that it was a challenging conversation telling her parents about her much older soon-to-be-husband when their relationship began.
“But then, of course, once they got to know him and saw who he is as a man, and his character and how much he adores me, I think it became quite easy for them, and now we’re all friends,” she recalled. “I mean, it’s a typical family relationship. My husband has such respect for my parents and the way that they raised me, and we all have a lot of fun together when they come to visit.”
Leavitt praised her older husband again during an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” back in February.
“He’s built a very successful business himself, so now he’s fully supportive of me building my success in my career,” said Leavitt.
