11 presidents and first ladies with huge age differences

Grover Cleveland was 48 when he became the first sitting president to get married in his wedding to 21-year-old Frances Folsom.

The couple knew each other for a long time before they tied the knot, as Folsom was the daughter of Cleveland's longtime law partner. Many in Washington expected him to marry a Folsom, but most were expecting it would be Emma Folsom, his partner's widow.

Real-estate mogul Donald Trump's third marriage was to 35-year-old Melania Knauss in January 2005.

The two first went public nearly a year after they met at a party in a Times Square nightclub during Fashion Week in September 1998. Since then, the two were visible at the top of New York society before moving to the White House after Trump's 2017 inauguration.

During their time as the first couple, the Trumps have sparked extensive scrutiny amid cheating rumors and multiple women accusing the president of sexual assault.

Forty-three-year-old James Madison married 26-year-old Dolley Payne Todd on September 15, 1794. It was her second marriage after her first husband died in 1793.

Federalist newspapers in Baltimore and Boston targeted Dolley during the 1808 election, implying she had intimate relations with her husband's friend and colleague, President Thomas Jefferson. The rumor eventually fizzled, and her popularity as first lady surged.

Woodrow Wilson married 43-year-old Edith Bolling Galt while in office, in what was the second marriage for both of them.

The couple caused a stir because they met when Wilson was still in mourning for his first wife, who died the year before he married Edith.

But Edith rose above and beyond the expected duties of a first lady after the president suffered a severe stroke in 1919, when she essentially ran the Executive Branch.

Caroline was 30 years old when she married 43-year-old Millard Fillmore in 1858.

Fillmore's second marriage came five years after the death of his wife and first lady, Abigail. It was also Caroline's second marriage, as she was widowed by a wealthy businessman, and required the former president to sign a prenuptial agreement before they wed.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was 24 when she married then 36-year-old Sen. John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1953. Seven years later, Kennedy became one of the youngest presidents in US history.

The couple charmed America with their good looks, despite the rampant cheating rumors that surrounded their time in the White House. After his assassination in 1963, John was survived by Jackie and the couple's two children.

Ronald Reagan was 41 when he married his then 30-year-old second wife and future first lady, Nancy, on March 6, 1952.

The couple settled in Los Angeles, California, where his political career would take off nearly 15 years later when he was elected governor of California.

James Monroe, then 28, married 17-year-old Elizabeth Kortright on February 16, 1786.

The couple settled in New York, while it was still the nation's capital. After her husband became president in 1817, Elizabeth became a fashionista first lady through her style that blended American and European attitudes, earning her the nickname "La Belle Americane."

Rutherford Birchard Hayes, then 30, married 21-year-old Lucy Webb on December 30, 1852.

While serving as first lady from 1877 to 1881, Lucy spearheaded a project to commission several portraits of presidents and first ladies for the White House and encouraged her servants to pursue their educational goals.

Though she was known for pushing reforms in mental health, orphanages, and homelessness, Lucy was frustrated with the restrictions women faced in the military and politics.

Abraham Lincoln, then 33, married 23-year-old Mary Todd on November 4, 1842.

Lincoln had broken his first engagement to Todd, but the two settled down as newlyweds in Springfield, Illinois. The couple would go on to lead a troubled family life, as three of their four sons would die from various diseases and injuries before reaching adulthood.

The former first lady's dire mental health state sparked grave concern from her family and friends after her husband's assassination on April 15, 1865.