Karoline Leavitt Goes For '80s Housewife Vibe With Older Husband At DC Party

Another day, another instance of Karoline Leavitt not beating the "desperately wants to be an old lady" allegations. The 28-year-old White House press secretary seemingly has a closet full of stuffy outfits that wouldn't look out of place in a nursing home. And while Leavitt's latest look isn't quite as grandma-coded as some of her previous getups, you do still get the impression she's trying to overcompensate for the fact that her husband is more than twice her age.

While this may be shocking to hear for some, at the end of this month, it will officially have been 36 years since the 1980s came to an end. And while some would argue that the '80s didn't really end until 1993 or so, the fact remains that if you're old enough to remember when MTV still played music videos, you might be overdue for a colonoscopy. With that in mind, the dress Leavitt wore while attending the Congressional Ball alongside her 60-year-old husband Nicholas Riccio is really giving " wannabe '80s prom queen." Or, maybe "rich '80s housewife who misses being the prom queen." There are layers here, people.

@karolineleavitt/Instagram

Leavitt shared a photo of herself and Riccio dressed up for the ball over Instagram Stories on December 12. And while her black gown was in some ways a refreshing change of pace for Leavitt — few things could be worse than that fugly green blazer she wore over the summer — the covered-up look combined with the boxy shoulders really just make the whole ensemble feel incredibly passé. If it wasn't for the high definition of the picture, you'd think this was a 30-year-old snapshot of a dad posing with his daughter while waiting for her mullet-clad date to arrive.

Between her dated fashion sense and her much-older husband, Karoline Leavitt is someone who clearly fancies herself an old soul. And if you look at social media comments, you'll find more than a few people who are shocked to learn that Leavitt is in her late 20s instead of her early 40s. Still, it's things like Leavitt's prom picture — sorry, her Congressional Ball picture — that really exemplify how much the elder Zoomer really seems to love cosplaying as a flat-out elder.

To be fair, Leavitt seems well aware just how odd her personal life and public presentation seems to the average observer. "I mean it's a very atypical love story but he's incredible," she said of the age gap between her and husband Nicholas Riccio during a February 2025 appearance on "The Megyn Kelly Show," adding, "He's the father of my child and he's the best dad I could ever ask for." With phrasing like that, the jokes practically write themselves. But despite Leavitt's air of confidence, it's obvious that she's reading those aforementioned comments and taking them to heart.

For instance, while we can't say for sure, it really seems like Leavitt might have airbrushed Riccio's face in an attempt to make him appear younger in a November 2025 Instagram post. She might have gotten away with it, too, had the 60-year-old's wrinkly hands not given the whole game away. As you might imagine, the comment section once again had a field day. "Face tuning your senior citizen husband is wild lol," one user wrote at the time. On the bright side, at least Leavitt has someone to tell her what the '80s were really like.