Chelsea Clinton And Marc Mezvinsky's Relationship Timeline

When Chelsea Clinton was a teenager, she was thrust into fame thanks to her parents. After all, she was put on the world stage when her father became president of the United States. That led to a wild amount of attention for a kid to deal with, including awful jokes from people like Rush Limbaugh, who infamously joked, "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" At the time, she was 13.

Decades removed from her time as a child under the media spotlight, Clinton is now the author of numerous books for children. Books like "She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World" teach kids about the very system she grew up in. She's also been an activist for women's rights. In a 2023 speech at the Clinton Global Initiative, she acknowledged backsliding equality, noting, "We have to secure the progress that we've made and keep pushing forward."

Clinton is now many other things, too. She's also a wife and a mother because of her relationship with husband Marc Mezvinsky, which means she now gets parenting advice from her own mother. Though they married in 2010 and first went public as a couple in 2005, they've known each other for most of their lives, owing to their shared political upbringings. This is Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky's relationship timeline.

Details are scarce about when Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky actually met for the first time. However, sources are clear that they've been friends since they were kids. 1993, it turns out, seems to have been a particularly pivotal year. Marc Mezvinsky's mother, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, was sworn in as a United States Congresswoman that year. It's also the year that Chelsea's father, Bill Clinton, was sworn in as president.

Bill and Marjorie turned out to be crucial political allies. She cast the decisive vote that led to the passage of his budget bill, which, according to Politico, led to her getting voted out of office the following year.

It seems, though, that the Clinton and Mezvinsky families remained friends. Sometime that year, both families attended a Democratic Party retreat in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. That's likely where Chelsea and Marc met for the first time, according to numerous sources. As Chelsea grew up in the spotlight and Marc dealt with his own politics-based childhood, they stayed in touch. It makes sense that Clinton would want to be close with someone who understood what she was going through; after all, it's no secret that politically motivated hate affected Chelsea Clinton's childhood. They wound up reconnecting more intensely some years later, at an important point in their young lives: college.

By 1997, Chelsea Clinton's father was still president, but her teenage years in the White House were coming to an end. This meant the time had come for her to choose somewhere to go to college. Naturally, there was much speculation about where she would end up. "It's the request of the president and Mrs. Clinton that Chelsea be allowed to have as normal a childhood as possible while living at the White House," the first lady's spokeswoman Neel Lattimore had told The Washington Post on the occasion of her 16th birthday. Leaving the White House to attend school, on the other hand? All bets were off.

The news finally broke in April 1997. CNN reported that Clinton had chosen Stanford University. "I'm just grateful this day has come," Hillary Clinton told reporters, acknowledging the long process of choosing between schools like Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. President Bill Clinton added, "She had wonderful choices, she made her own decision. Her mother and I are proud of her and support her."

Quickly, though, the press noticed something about Chelsea's choice of school: Stanford was the same school attended by her old pal Marc Mezvinsky. While speculation ran rampant that Chelsea chose Stanford to get closer to Marc Mezvinsky, his mother Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky quashed any rumors of romance. "I think she's too smart for that," the former U.S. congresswoman told The Spokesman-Review. "They're really good friends, just dear friends."

In the early 2000s, Marc Mezvinsky's father, former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky, was brought up on charges related to financial crimes. According to The Washington Post, Edward blamed his bad behavior on an anti-malaria drug he took for trips to Africa, which apparently led him to run a pyramid scheme, cheating friends and family members out of millions. Hey, maybe he was telling the truth; who are we to judge? U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell, on the other hand, was all too happy to judge; he prevented Edward from claiming his actions were the result of poor mental health. "[Mental health defenses] are founded on a miasma of ifs, hypotheses, and conjectures," he pronounced.

Edward wound up pleading guilty after all, copping to 69 counts of defrauding investors. "I didn't realize at the time that this was all going to come about the way it has, but yet it happened, and I have to accept responsibility for it," he said (via The Midland Daily News). He was ultimately sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Ultimately, Marc's friendship with Chelsea Clinton wound up being a matter of legal record. Prosecutor Robert Zauzmer told The New York Times that Edward frequently bragged about his son's friendship to potential victims. "When he thought it would help, he would call and say, 'I'm spending the weekend with the Clintons,'" he said. Edward sought a pardon from Bill Clinton, Politico reported, but he did not get one.

Sometime after Stanford, Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton reconnected, and this time their friendship turned to romance. Clinton had spent the last few years at Oxford, dating a man named Ian Klaus. After a Versace show in Milan, Clinton and Klaus were spotted dancing together, leading The New York Daily News to remark, "Looks like Chelsea Clinton has inherited her father's lust gene." (Look, it was the early aughts; people were still caught up in Monica Lewinsky fever and evidently weren't afraid to be openly misogynistic toward a graduate student and her boyfriend just having fun.)

Clinton and Mezvinsky, though, apparently first stepped out together in 2005. A few years later, as public attention once more turned to Clinton amid her mother's campaign for president, The New York Times reported on her new relationship. The outlet spoke with friends who said the couple weren't afraid of public displays of affection, cuddling up at parties no matter who was watching. The outlet also noted that if Hillary Clinton were to win the presidency, a potential Clinton/Mezvinsky wedding would've taken place under a Clinton White House. Chelsea was said to be trying to learn more about Mezvinsky's Jewish faith, even attending a Shabbat dinner at the home of a friend.

Vanessa Kerry, daughter of John Kerry, spoke with The New York Times about the scrutiny faced by political daughters. "I can't have any conception of what she goes through," she said.

Over Thanksgiving in 2009, Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton sent an email to friends and family letting them know they'd gotten engaged. The couple tended to avoid publicity, but of course the news broke; The New York Times even published the text of their email. "We're sorry for the mass e-mail, but we wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! We also wanted to share that we are engaged!" the couple wrote. They also addressed rumors that they had secretly married a few months earlier, explaining, "We didn't get married this past summer despite the stories to the contrary, but we are looking toward next summer and hope you all will be there to celebrate with us."

The following year, the couple weren't the only ones looking forward to the summer. Their wedding turned out to be the social event of the season. Before the ceremony, many of the details were kept securely under wraps. The New York Times reported that guests were only told the wedding would be somewhere within driving distance of New York City. "Chelsea is such a private person, and she hates the thought of people roaming around with cameras," one family friend told the paper.

That didn't stop "Inside Edition" (via HuffPost) from asking Mezvinsky's father for his thoughts. He answered, "These are two wonderful human beings that have sensitivity about life and have a warm regard for family."

Even though Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton tried to keep details of their wedding private, there was significant public interest anyway. When Ryan Seacrest asked Bill Clinton about the impending nuptials, he said (via People), "I always thought being her father was my most important job, so it's a big day for me. [It's] the biggest day in her life, probably."

The wedding took place in Rhinebeck, New York, a picturesque town a short drive from Manhattan. Rhinebeck was overrun with well-wishers and onlookers, some of whom spoke with The New York Times about the ceremony. "It's royalty. It's our royalty," Chelsea's friend Arlene Newman said, while another friend, Linda Ennis, complimented Chelsea's looks. "She's turned into such a beauty," she noted. Afterward, Bill and Hillary Clinton released a statement, saying, "We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together."

Because Mezvinsky is Jewish and Clinton grew up Christian, the wedding featured a blending of traditions. They were married under a chuppah, and the groom wore a prayer shawl in addition to his yarmulke. Consequently, the marriage touched off discourse about growing acceptance of interfaith weddings. In an op-ed for HuffPost, rabbi and author Edmund Case wrote about the various ways Clinton and Mezvinsky might incorporate their religions in their marriage moving forward. He wrote, "As so many others are proving, the struggles intermarried couples face can be great — but the rewards can be greater."

Less than a year after they married, rumors swirled that Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky were already headed for a divorce. A source spoke with The National Enquirer (via the Daily Mail) and claimed that they'd argued over starting a family. "Chelsea asked her mother and father if they could help her get an annulment," the source claimed. "She's heartbroken but she isn't afraid to end the marriage. She regrets now that she ever married Marc." Speculation kicked into overdrive when Mezvinsky set out on a snowboarding trip, leaving Clinton behind in New York.

However, it all turned out to be much ado about nothing. "Our inside sources between them, looks they're still in love," gossip columnist Carson Griffith told CBS News. "They're still a young, happy couple." A friend of the couple spoke with People (via the Daily Mail) and insisted, "Any report suggesting there is trouble in the marriage is absolutely false."

For the rest of February 2011, Clinton and Mezvinsky put in the work to make sure everyone knew they were still together. The Daily Mail noted that Clinton wore her wedding ring prominently on a walk around New York City, and Us Weekly reported that the couple attended an amFAR Gala together, looking very much in love. Marie Clinton Bruno, Bill Clinton's cousin, told the magazine, "All is very well."

By the time 2014 rolled around, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky had been married for only a few years and had already dealt with rampant speculation in the press about a possible divorce. They powered through, and that year, Clinton opened up about married life in an interview on "Mondays With Marlo" (via Politico). Both halves of the couple had high-powered jobs, which meant they needed to work out a way to remain committed to one another even though they weren't necessarily spending as much time together as they would've liked. 

Date nights, it turned out, became incredibly important to the couple. They insisted on at least one a week. "Sometimes, that means there are weeks where we don't really see our friends, but we ensure that every week at least we have one date night," she said.

Furthermore, Clinton also emphasized the importance of regular communication. "[W]e ensure that if we're really tired one night, we don't talk about our days," she said. "That's OK, but we never have two days where we don't talk about our days." Their regular check-ins made sure both parties felt both supported and informed about what their partners were up to. "[We do] little things like that, that might sound manufactured," Clinton said, "but that are really important to the discipline of maintaining strong communication and the bonds that are so important to each of us."

Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky are parents to three children, two boys and a girl. Jasper was born in 2019, Aidan came along in 2016, and Charlotte was the first-born child back in 2014. Clinton's mother Hillary has held many important positions, including first lady, senator, and secretary of state, but when Charlotte's impending arrival was announced, the "What Happened" author tweeted, "My most exciting title yet: Grandmother-To-Be! @billclinton and I are thrilled that Chelsea and Marc are expecting their first child!"

Chelsea has spoken about how important motherhood was to her, especially because she helped out on her mother's presidential campaign in 2016. She spoke with a blog called The Fifth Trimester and reflected that her experience of having children made her want to be involved in politics more than ever. "I didn't know that I could care any more intensely about politics until I became a parent and found that I could and that did really surprise me," she said. "I just hope that someday my children ... will feel as much pride toward me as I feel for my mom."

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chelsea gave an interview with People about how hard it was to parent kids while working from home. "Lots of guilt and navigation and just trying to do the best we can every day," she said, "and some days the best is going to be better than others."

With her first daughter's first birthday approaching, Chelsea Clinton spoke with People about life as a mom. She said she was loving it, and that being a mom made her reconsider many relationships in her life. "Somehow, I love my husband even more, I love my parents even more ... I think my love for Charlotte has just opened more space in my heart and my brain that I didn't even know was there," she said.

Clinton did have one gripe, however: Marc Mezvinsky apparently avoided diaper duty! She insisted that her husband helped in other ways, telling the magazine that his reluctance to change dirty diapers was the exception. In fact, she said it had become a running joke between them. "He's so attentive, he's so engaged with her, reading to her, helping her get dressed, getting her into her pajamas at night, helping give her a bath," she promised. "Everything else."

Apparently, Mezvinsky wasn't particularly happy that his wife shared this information in the pages of People. Clinton appeared on "Today" (via People) shortly after the interview and revealed that her husband had started to pitch in. "He was really rather mortified that I shared that, so he's been changing lots of diapers in the last week," she shared. "I didn't know that that would have the impact it would. If I did, I would have talked to People much earlier!" she joked.

As one might expect from the offspring of not one but two famed political dynasties, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky live quite a lavish lifestyle. Clinton has worked for McKinsey, a consulting firm, and managed hedge funds at Avenue Capital Group. Mezvinsky, on the other hand, has worked in private equity.

Presumably, this is all how they've been able to make some seriously impressive real estate moves. In 2013, The New York Post reported that the couple had purchased a four-bedroom, $10.5 million condo in a Madison Square Park area building called The Whitman. "It's great for them, because it is in a hot neighborhood and it is very private. There aren't hundreds of neighbors, and there is great security," a source told The Post. While Bill and Hillary Clinton toured the 5,000 square foot apartment, they posed for pics with construction workers on-site. Three years after they moved in together, The Post reported that they had listed Chelsea's former apartment on Fifth Avenue for $6 million. Not a bad way to recoup an investment!

By 2022, The Whitman had become quite the posh place to live. The New York Post reported in 2022 that a vacant apartment was on the market for $13.75 million. The outlet also noted that other apartments in the five-floor, five-condo building were owned by Jennifer Lopez and Jeff Gordon.