--- title: Former Sen. Harris Wofford, 90, Says He’s Marrying a Man description: Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford announced that he’s marrying a man who is 50 years younger than him after his wife's death. canonical: https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-24T19:41:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:00.528Z article:section: Politics og:title: 90-Year-Old Former Pennsylvania Senator Announces He’s Marrying a Man og:description: He fell in love with Matthew Charlton after the death of his wife og:url: https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte05cf708a793fd46/69889079cf40a83a6ec42f65/sen-harris-wofford.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: KRT STAND ALONE PHOTO SLUGGED: WOFFORD KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY CHU og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 90-Year-Old Former Pennsylvania Senator Announces He’s Marrying a Man twitter:description: He fell in love with Matthew Charlton after the death of his wife twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte05cf708a793fd46/69889079cf40a83a6ec42f65/sen-harris-wofford.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 90-Year-Old Former Pennsylvania Senator Announces He’s Marrying a Man > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=eac92af4-ead6-487d-80d1-37723dce92d0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: U.K. Warns LGBT Travelers About North Carolina and Mississippi Laws [Watch (HLS stream): U.K. Warns LGBT Travelers About North Carolina and Mississippi Laws](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QgyUBhQ2.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2016-04-21_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 24, 2016 7:41 PM UTC  Former Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford photographed in his Washington office on April 13, 2005. Former Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford photographed in his Washington office on April 13, 2005. Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 24, 2016 7:41 PM UTC Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania on Sunday [announced that he’s marrying a man](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/opinion/sunday/findinglove-again-this-time-with-a-man.html?%5Fr=1) who is 50 years younger than him after the two fell in love following the death of his longtime wife. Wofford, a 90-year-old Democrat, penned an op-ed in the New York _Times_, breaking the news about his upcoming nuptials with a 40-year-old man named Matthew Charlton. “Too often, our society seeks to label people by pinning them on the wall — straight, gay or in between. I don’t categorize myself based on the gender of those I love,” he wrote. “I had a half-century of marriage with a wonderful woman, and now am lucky for a second time to have found happiness.” Wofford, a father of three, wrote about how he and Charlton met at a Florida beach 15 years ago and fell in love at a time when he believed he would never remarry. Wofford’s wife, Clare, had died in 1996 after battling acute leukemia. “I assumed that I was too old to seek or expect another romance,” Wofford wrote. The two will tie the knot on April 30, he said. “We will join hands, vowing to be bound together: to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part,” Wofford said. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/opinion/sunday/findinglove-again-this-time-with-a-man.html?%5Fr=1)\] ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/"},"headline":"90-Year-Old Former Pennsylvania Senator Announces He’s Marrying a Man","datePublished":"2016-04-24T19:41:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:00.528Z","description":"“I had a half-century of marriage with a wonderful woman, and now am lucky for a second time to have found happiness\"","url":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/","keywords":["Pennsylvania"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte05cf708a793fd46/69889079cf40a83a6ec42f65/sen-harris-wofford.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte05cf708a793fd46/69889079cf40a83a6ec42f65/sen-harris-wofford.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"KRT STAND ALONE PHOTO SLUGGED: WOFFORD KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY CHU","caption":"KRT STAND ALONE PHOTO SLUGGED: WOFFORD KRT PHOTOGRAPH BY CHU","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/","name":"90-Year-Old Former Pennsylvania Senator Announces He’s Marrying a Man"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"U.K. Warns LGBT Travelers About North Carolina and Mississippi Laws","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QgyUBhQ2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-04-21T17:34:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QgyUBhQ2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4305969/harris-wofford-marrying-man/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```