by - Ron and Casey DeSantis were married at Walt disney world in 2009, Insider first reported.
- The couple opened up about their marriage for the first time in a radio interview with Sirius XM Patriot.
- Florida’s governor admitted that the termination option was “kind of ironic.”
Florida Gov. opened. Ron DeSantis has spoken publicly for the first time about how he and his wife, Casey DeSantis, ended up exchanging their vows during a fairytale wedding at Walt Disney World Resort – only to get into a brutal fight with their favorite family . company 13 years later.
In an interview with Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, the Republican governor confirmed an Insider report in November 2022 about the marriage, which had never been reported before and was not widely known among Florida’s political class.
“Looking back at what we’ve done as governor and some of the things we’ve had with some big institutions in Florida, it’s kind of ironic,” DeSantis said, according to a transcript and recording of the interview shared with Insider. , which will air Monday on conservative SiriusXM Patriot radio.
In the interview, Casey DeSantis acknowledged that the revelation, which came before Election Day, created “a lot of news.” Her parents had the idea of ​​getting married at Disney World because they always looked forward to visiting the theme park when she was growing up in Ohio, she said.
“And one of the other great things was that they did a lot of the planning for you,” she said of Disney’s wedding offerings. “So I was able to show something. And it was really fun.”
The comments confirm the Insider report, after interviewing a wedding guest, that Casey DeSantis “wanted something all-inclusive and put together.”
The interview clip doesn’t provide details about the wedding, but Insider previously reported that the DeSantises’ ceremony was at the Grand Floridian’s Wedding Pavilion, a chapel with arched windows overlooking Cinderella Castle and the Marlakh of the Seven Seas. The reception was held at Epcot’s Italy Isola, a nod to the couple’s Italian heritage.
When DeSantis was running for re-election in November 2022, he would often boast about his counterclaims against Disney for opposing its Parental Rights in Education Act, opponents of the law called like “Don’t Say Gay” LGBTQ rights organizations. He did not mention during his campaign that he got married there.
—Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) September 26, 2022
DeSantis defied Disney after its leaders said they would work toward repealing the “Don’t Say Gay” law by stripping the company of its self-regulatory status starting in June 2022. DeSantis is expected to sign another bill in law within days or weeks that would give it the power to appoint a state-run board to oversee the resort and theme park.
Disney is Florida’s largest private employer and the company has supported gay rights since the 1990s.
The controversial school law prohibits teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, though it also contains vague language that such instruction in higher grades must be “age or developmentally appropriate.”
Some Florida school boards have expressed confusion over how to follow the law, and critics have said they are concerned about chilling the speech of LGBTQ teachers and students being bullied or sent out to families who do not accept them.
Casey DeSantis shared in an interview with SiriusXM Patriots that she wouldn’t be taking her three children to Disney World “until things change a little bit over there,” though she admitted that her wedding was a “fun time” and revealed that her parents were celebrating. 50 years of marriage at the theme park.
She also opened up about her first date with the future governor, who is widely seen as a hopeful for a 2024 presidential run.
The two met at a driving range at the University of North Florida. In a 2018 interview on First Coast News, Casey DeSantis shared that she was practicing her swing and looked over her shoulder to see if she could get an extra bucket of golf balls. DeSantis was behind her and he thought she was looking at him.
Casey DeSantis said in an interview with SiriusXM Patriots that she didn’t know DeSantis would end up going into politics. But since then, Casey DeSantis has been an equal partner, a master image maker, and a powerful confidante to her husband, Insider revealed in an article about Florida’s first lady.
“We went out and had beer,” said Casey DeSantis at family sports restaurant Beef o’ Brady’s in the upcoming interview. “That was the first time I ever met a guy and just followed them in the car to a place to go get a beer. And really, it was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had, and we had a lot of fun.”
