White House love stories: How the Bidens, Trumps and other presidential couples describe their marriages

After former first lady Rosalynn Carter died last month, Americans across the country were moved by memories of her historic marriage with former President Jimmy Carter.

The former president told The New York Times in 2021, as the couple celebrated their 75^th wedding anniversary, that marrying his wife was “the best thing I’ve ever had happen to me.”

“I love her more now than I did to begin with – which is saying a lot, because I loved her a lot,” Jimmy Carter said at the time.

Claire Jerry, a curator of political history at the National Museum of American History, told USA TODAY Americans have long seen the president’s family as the “family-in-chief" for the nation.

“People just have always resonated with wanting to know more about them, even all the way back to the Washingtons,” she said, noting that the president and first lady’s “stories are part of what brought them to national prominence.”

But Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter aren’t the only presidential couple with a love story that has captured the country’s imagination. Here’s a look at how the living presidents and first ladies have talked about their marriages and lives together.

Joe Biden and Jill Biden

President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden were set up on a blind date in 1975. Earlier this year, they celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.

Jill Biden wrote in a 2019 essay in Time magazine that the now-president proposed five times before she agreed to marry him. While they were dating, she feared being wed to a public figure, becoming a step-parent to Beau Biden and Hunter Biden and more.

After accepting, the first lady said Joe Biden told her “I promise you, your life will never change.”

“In the years since, I’ve thought about Joe’s promise that night, that life would ‘never change.’ It would turn out to be wildly untrue, of course. Life is change,” Jill Biden wrote.

Joe Biden shared in a 2021 interview with People that he knew he wanted to marry the now-first lady “shortly after I met her.”

The president in the interview also advised couples that “Everybody says marriage is a 50/50. Well, that’s not true. Sometimes you have to be 70/30. When I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s down, I’m able to step in. And we’ve been really supportive of one another.”

Donald Trump and Melania Trump

Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump met at a party in 1998. Twenty years later, the then-president called Melania Trump his “rock and foundation” in a campaign email.

“I wouldn’t be the man I am today without her by my side,” Trump said in 2018.

But the couple has also addressed difficult times in their relationship. Melania Trump in an interview the same year said she had "much more important things to think about" than accusations Donald Trump had affairs during their marriage.

During the former president’s first presidential campaign in 2016, Melania Trump explained that the couple are their “own people.”

“I’m my own person. He’s his own person. And I think that’s very important. I don’t want to change him. He doesn’t want to change me," Melania Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama

Former first lady Michelle Obama earlier this year warned that “marriage is hard” as she opened up about her 30-year union with former President Barack Obama.

Obama told Gayle King in an interview with “CBS Mornings” that it’s “impossible” to like "everybody every day.” She noted that she and the former president have been married for decades, saying “If I fell out with him for 10, and we had (a) great 20 years, I’d take those odds anytime.”

The couple met in 1989, when they both worked at a Chicago law firm.

When Barack Obama earlier this year was asked about his wife’s honest answers about relationships, the former president gave “CBS Mornings” a hint about what helped usher in better years for the couple.

"Let me just say this: it sure helps to be out of the White House. And to have a little more time with her,” Barack Obama said.

George W. Bush and Laura Bush

Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush didn't live up to a deal they struck when they were engaged in 1977.

During his first term in office George Bush gave remarks in Morrison, Colorado, and joked that, when he asked her to marry him, she responded "Fine, just as long as I never have to give a speech."

“Fortunately, she didn't hold me to the promise,” George Bush said at the time. “She's given a lot of speeches”

That proposal wasn’t the only time talking played a major role in their relationship. Laura Bush in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2021 said one of the things that first drew her to her now-husband was that "he liked to talk and I liked to listen."

George Bush in a 2021 Today interview told hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, his daughter, “You know, I’ve done a lot of things in my life, and your mom has enabled me to do so.”

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she doesn’t have regrets about staying married to former President Bill Clinton, despite painful moments in their past.

Bill Clinton’s affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky was a defining moment for the country in the 1990s. But decades later, Clinton said in a 2019 interview with “Good Morning America” that the gutsiest thing she has ever done in her personal life was stay in her marriage.

Hillary Clinton wrote in her 2003 book, “Living History,” that the choice marked one of “the most difficult decisions I have made in my life.”

Bill Clinton, who met Hillary Clinton at Yale Law School, said in a 2015 interview that she is a “rock” in their family.

“I trust her with my life, and have on more than one occasion,” he said, adding that Hillary Clinton helped him through years “plagued with self-doubt.”

“I was the youngest former governor in American history in 1980 on election night. I got killed in the Reagan landslide,” Clinton said. “People I had appointed to office would walk across the street, they were so afraid of the new regime in Arkansas and would not shake hands with me. My career prospects were not particularly bright.”

“And she never blinked. She just said, ‘Hey. It’ll turn around. I believe in you. You’ve got this,’” he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bidens, Trumps, Obamas: Who's the longest-married presidential couple?