Youngest person I know who got married… a guy who dropped out of our high school early so he could work and get a GED. He married at 17. They’re still married now. They’re part of a charismatic evangelical church.
Oldest person I know who got married… I have some second cousins who remarried, after being widowed, in their fifties and sixties.
The biggest age difference I know was between one of my college roommates (23 at marriage) and her husband and shudder former high school history teacher, who was in his early forties. So about twenty years there.
There’s an 8.5 year difference between my husband and I.
What is the biggest age difference between two people, you personally know, that got married?
My grandparents are about 20 years apart. My grandma is my grandpa’s second wife, so the weird thing is she’s the same age as my Mom. They got married when my grandma and Mom were both about 19, shortly before I was born. They’ve been married a very long time, close to 30 years. We don’t take age differences too seriously in this family.
Hm, I’m having trouble thinking examples of youngest and oldest. Then again, quite often I don’t know the bride’s and groom’s exact ages. I have an aunt who didn’t get married until she was probably in her 50s.
I’m more tuned in to age spreads, because Mr. S is 11½ years older than me. But we know a couple where the spread is about 20 years (she’s in her 50s, he’s in his 70s; second marriage for him, and I don’t know about her).
Does “engaged to be married, had a religious wedding and in the planning of a legal one” count as “married”? If it does, there are 22 years between my (not-yet-legal) husband and I. He was in and *out *of Vietnam before I was born!
The age difference was a huge issue in our getting together, since it just didn’t occur to me that he was “datable”. Since we’ve been together, it hasn’t been an issue at all, except as something we giggle about together. We know people must whisper and point and think we look bizarre walking down the street holding hands, since he’s clearly old enough to be my father, but we just find it funny. Once a mattress salesman selling me (us) a new bed referred to him outright as “Dad”, and I razzed him about it all afternoon.
I’m may come back and answer the other questions later, but I will point out that the biggest difference* is an 18 year old that married a 30 year old–and nobody in rural northern Arkansas cares.
My parents are over 26 years apart. My dad was drafted, served in the army for a couple of years, then went to college and graduated after four years. My mom was born a year later.
The youngest: One of my mother’s cousins (Mom’s in her late 70s) who married at 12 and had her first child at 13.
The oldest: My great uncle, who married his second wife while in his mid-70s. They were married for almost 20 years before his death.
Biggest age gap: I’m not quite sure. One great aunt was married to a man old enough to be her father. Another married her son-in-law after her daughter was killed. My sister’s first husband was 20 years older than she was.
(Anybody hear strains of the theme from Deliverence yet? :p)
I know a few girls who married much older guys - 15-20 yrs difference - a couple of them cheerfully admit it’s linked to “daddy issues” but it seems to be working out for them.
Youngest I personally know, the mother of my best boyfriend: shotgun wedding, bride 13yo, groom 14yo, sent to live with relatives in Miami after the wedding (they were from Costa Rica). My ex was born when his mother was 14, his brother when she was 15.
Oldest, a great-uncle: 55, bride 56, both considered confirmed unmarriable by their very-surprised relatives, lightning courtship.
Greatest age difference, 11 years and the bride was 19.
I married the first time when I was 18. The marriage lasted about 12 years.
My second wife is 11 years my senior. We’ve been together 25 years.
My Mom remarried after my Dad died when she was 57.
Paternal granny married her third husband (once divorced, once widowed), when she was 82 1/2 years old. The groom was a young lad of 80. They’re still married, she’s close to 87 and he’s 85.
My cousin married at 17-18 to her first husband, who was the same age.
Although never married, maternal grandfather had a girlfriend who was in her 50s and 60s while he was in his 70s and 80s.
I knew a 14 year old girl who got pregnant and got married.
I knew a guy who got married for the first time when he was 40.
My brother’s wife is 10 years younger than him. I know of bigger age differences but IRL that is the biggest one I know of right now.
ETA-I got married for the 2nd time in my 40s after many years of single-hood, but I took it for granted you were asking about first marriages. Before my husband I dated a guy in his 20s who wanted to marry me but I just wasn’t feeling it.
My maternal grandmother and grandfather were 25 years apart. She was 17 when they married and he was 42.
I work in a college fundraising office and one of our alumni is married to a woman 42 years younger than he is. This was confirmed by a letter from the alum.
