White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 28, shares her ‘atypical’ love story with 60-year-old husband
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has spoken candidly about her marriage to Nicolas Riccio, a real estate developer who is 32 years her senior.
The couple tied the knot in January 2025, just before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Leavitt, 28, shared wedding photos on Instagram on 2025 March 12, describing their wedding day as one of the happiest moments of her life.
A Love Story That Began in Politics
Leavitt recently appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show, where she reflected on her relationship, describing it as “atypical but incredibly supportive.”
She recalled first meeting Riccio in 2022 at a New Hampshire restaurant event while running for Congress. Although she secured the Republican nomination, she ultimately lost the race to Democrat Chris Pappas. However, that political campaign led to personal gains, as it introduced her to Riccio.
“A mutual friend of ours hosted an event at a restaurant that he owns up in New Hampshire and invited my husband. I was speaking,” Leavitt explained. “We met and we were acquainted as friends. And then we fell in love.”
Despite initial concerns about their age difference, Leavitt said it quickly became a non-issue. She emphasized how much she values Riccio’s support, describing him as her “greatest supporter, best friend, and rock.”
“He’s built a very successful business himself, so now he’s fully supportive of me building my success in my career,” she said.
Marriage, Motherhood, and Career
The couple got engaged on Christmas 2023, and just a few months later, they welcomed their son, Nicholas Robert Riccio, on July 10, 2024.
After giving birth, Leavitt took to Instagram to share her excitement about motherhood, writing:
“It’s true when they say there’s nothing comparable to the love you feel for your child. My heart has grown bigger than I ever imagined possible. Babies are the ultimate blessing, and I’m bursting with gratitude for our beautiful, happy, healthy boy.”
During her interview, she also reflected on how her husband has embraced the chaos of her fast-paced career.
“He’s the father of my child, and he’s the best dad I could ever ask for. And he is so supportive, especially during a very chaotic period of life… 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.”
A Private Partner in a Public Life
Although Leavitt is a prominent public figure, Riccio prefers to stay out of the spotlight. She acknowledged this dynamic in a social media post, calling him an introvert and the complete opposite of her.
“I respect his privacy on here, but he’s my number one fan, the best dad, and just the best man I’ve ever met.”
Despite his private nature, she emphasized that he remains her biggest supporter, encouraging her political ambitions while staying behind the scenes.
As she continues balancing her role as a mother, wife, and political figure, Leavitt remains grateful for the unwavering support of her husband and their growing family.
The Gigification of Code: How AI is Rewriting the Rules of Tech Employment
By AI Correspondent
The dream of the modern software developer used to look a specific way: a salaried position at a tech hub, comprehensive benefits, and a clear trajectory from junior to senior engineer. Today, for a growing number of unemployed developers, that dream has fractured. The rapid proliferation of Artificial Intelligence has not only automated the act of writing code, but it has fundamentally altered the structural nature of tech employment itself.
We are witnessing the "gigification" of software engineering. As companies leverage AI to do more with less, full-time, stable roles are increasingly being replaced by fragmented, short-term contracts, leaving displaced developers to navigate an unpredictable and exhausting new landscape.
The Borderless, AI-Powered Talent Pool
In the past, an unemployed developer in London or San Francisco primarily competed with local talent. Today, AI has flattened the global playing field.
Large Language Models (LLMs) act as the ultimate equalizers, bridging language barriers and standardizing code quality. A company can now hire a developer halfway across the world for a fraction of the cost, knowing that AI coding assistants will catch syntax errors, generate documentation, and ensure the code meets industry standards.
For the unemployed developer in a high cost-of-living area, this creates a daunting dual-threat: they are competing simultaneously against tireless AI agents and a newly empowered, globally distributed workforce willing to work for significantly less.
The Rise of the "Fractional" Engineer
As tech companies adopt hyper-lean operating models, their hiring strategies have shifted. Instead of bringing on full-time staff to build and maintain a product over years, companies are increasingly hiring "fractional" engineers for specific, time-bound deployments.
Project-Based Paradigms: A company might hire a developer on a three-month contract to integrate an AI API into their existing platform. Once the integration is complete and the AI is functioning, the contract ends.
The End of On-the-Job Learning: Because these roles are short-term and results-driven, there is zero tolerance for a learning curve. Companies expect developers to arrive with immediate, highly specialized solutions. If you do not already possess the exact niche skills required for the gig, you are not hired.
The Exhaustion of the "Hustle"
Perhaps the most exhausting aspect of this new reality is what it demands of developers outside of their technical abilities. To survive in a gig-based, AI-driven economy, unemployed coders are being forced to become marketers, salespeople, and content creators.
Sending a resume is no longer enough. To stand out, developers feel intense pressure to build a "personal brand."
The Content Treadmill: Unemployed engineers spend their days writing tech blogs, contributing aggressively to open-source projects, and posting AI tutorials on platforms like LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) just to maintain visibility.
Constant Self-Promotion: The introverted nature that draws many to software engineering is actively punished in this new environment. The emotional drain of constantly having to "sell" oneself, while simultaneously managing the financial anxiety of unemployment, leads to profound burnout.
Adapting to the Freelance Reality
Despite the harshness of this new ecosystem, a path forward exists for those willing to adapt to the rules of the gig economy. Displaced developers are finding traction by leaning into areas where AI still requires human oversight:
AI Auditing and Security: As companies rush to deploy AI-generated code, they are inadvertently introducing massive security vulnerabilities. Developers are pivoting to become freelance auditors, hired specifically to test, secure, and clean up the code that AI produces.
Bespoke AI Integration: Rather than building general web apps, developers are acting as independent consultants, helping non-technical small businesses integrate tailored AI solutions into their unique workflows.
Community Building: Finding solace and opportunity in specialized, niche developer communities where trust and human reputation still outweigh automated filtering systems.
A New Era of Work
The traditional 9-to-5 tech job is not dead, but its supremacy is fading. As Artificial Intelligence continues to evolve, the software industry is transforming into a landscape of hyper-specialized freelancers and short-term problem solvers. The unemployed developers of today are the pioneers forced to navigate this rugged new terrain. Their success will depend less on their ability to write perfect syntax, and entirely on their resilience, adaptability, and willingness to redefine what it means to be a working software engineer.
