Only Two Presidents Have Ever Been Divorced, and We Bet You Know One of Them

For most of American history, divorce was frowned upon. It reflected badly on both the man and the woman, and it often meant that women in particular would stay in terrible or even abusive relationships because of social stigma. Today, divorce is much more normalized than it once was, even among the most devoutly religious parts of American life.

Even as divorce has become more common, though, many wondered how many presidents have gotten divorced. Here's what we know about which presidents served after getting divorced.

Only two U.S. presidents have ever been divorced: Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Reagan had been married to his second wife, Nancy, for decades by the time he took the oath of office. His first marriage was to Jane Wyman, one of his co-stars, and the two got together in 1940, had two children, and divorced in 1949. Reagan was elected to the presidency until more than three decades later.

It seems that that gap in time, and the fact that Reagan's second marriage seemed to be such a success, was enough for most voters to give him a pass on the divorce, even though many of the Christians who voted for Reagan likely frowned on divorce in other circumstances.

The second president who was divorced is Donald Trump, who was married twice before his third marriage to Melania, whom he has been married to since 2006.

Trump is another figure who many Christians voted for in spite of his history of divorce, suggesting that there is some flexibility in their beliefs for the right candidate. Although divorce has become more common across American life, the places where it is still frowned upon most stridently is in those devoutly religious circles. Even so, they were willing to believe that, flawed as both Reagan and Trump were, they were the best candidates for the Christian right to support.

Although Trump and Reagan are the only presidents to have gotten divorced and remarried, two other presidents — John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson — lost their wives while they were president and remarried. Edith, Wilson's second wife, was a particularly important marriage because Wilson suffered a stroke, and Edith became the de facto leader of the executive branch in her husband's stead for much of his second term.

James Buchanan is the only president in the history of the office to never be married, and scholars today believe that the reason for that was that he was gay, and of course closeted at the time.

This history of the office is an important reminder, though, that the men who have occupied it to date have not been defined by as similar a set of characteristics as one might think.

Several have been divorced or closeted, and Bill Clinton didn't get divorced after facing a very public marital crisis when his extra-marital affairs came to light. Trump's divorces are just one small part of his exceptionally complicated personality, and the same was true for Reagan.