Karoline Leavitt's Husband Skips Turkey Pardon After She Blabbed About Their Age Gap

Karoline Leavitt attended the turkey pardon ceremony with a plus-one, and no, it wasn't her husband. The White House press secretary took her son, Niko Riccio, to watch President Donald Trump pardon Gobble and Waddle on November 25, 2025 (seen below). Leavitt's husband, Nicholas Riccio, apparently sat this one out, even though he has attended these sorts of events in the past. In April 2025, Riccio was right there with Leavitt and Niko at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

At the time, Leavitt's attempt to parade her age-gap marriage backfired, with Instagram users seizing the opportunity in order to criticize Leavitt and Riccio's 32-year age difference. Interestingly, Riccio skipped the turkey pardon just days after Leavitt admitted that her husband's age posed challenges in the early days of their relationship. Given that Leavitt's parents are shockingly close in age to Riccio, with her mother actually being five years younger, it is unsurprising that they initially disapproved of her daughter's new beau.

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"It's definitely a challenging conversation to have at first," Leavitt confessed on "Pod Force One with Miranda Devine" on November 19, 2025. Eventually, her parents saw what Leavitt sees in Riccio and how much he apparently loves her, and they came around. After a while, they became just like a regular family. However, the attention and mean nicknames have to make things awkward, and perhaps Leavitt only made things worse. It's impossible to know if her interview played a role in Riccio's decision to skip the Thanksgiving tradition. After all, "He's very introverted," Leavitt said. Perhaps he wanted to avoid the attention.

Karoline Leavitt and Nicholas Riccio were friends before they fell in love. However, when she began to develop feelings for him, she was initially reluctant to take things a step further. "Yes, of course!" she admitted when asked about it on "The Megyn Kelly Show" in February 2025. "I mean, it's a very atypical love story, but he's incredible." Leavitt gushed about her husband's qualities as a partner and father, noting she wouldn't be where she is without him. "He's the best dad I could ever ask for," she said.

Leavitt continued: "Poor man, he had no idea what was going to happen. I say, 'I walked into your life, and it's been a circus ever since,' but God bless him because he's fully on board." She argued that Riccio's own success as a real estate developer inspired him to want to see her achieve great feats. Leavitt's constant gushing about her husband hasn't seemed to change the internet's opinion of their age gap, though.

Every time Leavitt posts family photos on social media, mocking comments about Riccio's age dominate the comments section. "So when your child is 11 their dad is gunna be in hospice?" one Instagram user asked under her Halloween post featuring Riccio and Niko. Another echoed the sentiment, illustrating how commonplace it is. "Get a lot of practice changing your baby's diapers so you can do it for your husband one day." At this point, Leavitt is probably used to it.