This is a list of spouses of national leaders born abroad. Spouses or partners using the title of "First lady" or "First gentleman" of a nation are included, whether they be a spouse of a president, prime minister, or other national leader. Some countries which have a president and prime minister have only included the spouse considered that of the national leader.
Spouses are not included if they were born in a colony that would become an independent state (e.g. New Spain forming independent nations in Latin America), countries that changed names (Upper Volta to Burkina Faso), or countries that broke apart (spouses of former Soviet countries born in another Soviet republic). Regal consorts and spouses of viceregal representatives (governors-general) are not included.
Name | Country | Spouse | Office | Birth Country | Term Length |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rula Ghani | Afghanistan | Ashraf Ghani | President | Lebanon | 2014–2021 |
Juana del Pino y Vera Mujica | Argentina | Bernardino Rivadavia | President | Uruguay | 1826–1827 |
Cipriana de Saenz | Argentina | Luis Sáenz Peña | President | Uruguay | 1892–1895 |
Emily Henry de la Plaza | Argentina | Victorino de la Plaza | President | United Kingdom ( Scotland) | 1914–1916[1] |
Regina Pacini | Argentina | Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear | President | Kingdom of Portugal | 1922–1928[2] |
Bettina Gorton | Australia | John Gorton | Prime Minister | United States | 1968–1971 |
Annita van Iersel | Australia | Paul Keating | Prime Minister | Netherlands | 1991–1996 |
Margie Abbott | Australia | Tony Abbott | Prime Minister | New Zealand | 2013–2015 |
Margit Fischer | Austria | Heinz Fischer | President | Sweden | 2004–2016 |
Carolyn Plaskett | Barbados | Errol Barrow | Prime Minister | United States | 1966–1976, 1986–1987 |
Mara Thompson | Barbados | David Thompson | Prime Minister | Saint Lucia | 2008–2010 |
Celie Verbeke | Belgium | Jean-Luc Dehaene | Prime Minister | United States | 1992–1999[3] |
Chris Stone | Belgium | Sophie Wilmès | Prime Minister | Australia | 2019–2020 |
Virginia Gillum | Bolivia | Jorge Quiroga | President | United States | 2001–2002[4] |
Héctor Hincapié Carvajal | Bolivia | Jeanine Áñez | President | Colombia | 2019–2020[5] |
Ruth Williams Khama | Botswana | Seretse Khama | President | United Kingdom ( England) | 1966–1980 |
Gladys Olebile Masire | Botswana | Quett Masire | President | Union of South Africa (modern day South Africa) | 1980–1998 |
Chantal Compaoré | Burkina Faso | Blaise Compaoré | President | Ivory Coast | 1987–2014 |
Sika Bella Kaboré | Burkina Faso | Roch Marc Christian Kaboré | President | Togo | 2015–2022 |
Lígia Fonseca | Cabo Verde | Jorge Carlos Fonseca | President | Portuguese Mozambique (modern day Mozambique) | 2011–2021 |
Mila Mulroney | Canada | Brian Mulroney | Prime Minister | Yugoslavia (modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina) | 1984–1993 |
Luisa Garmendia | Chile | Francisco Antonio Pinto | President | Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (Modern day Argentina) | 1827-1829 |
Manuela Warnes | Chile | Joaquín Prieto | President | Argentina | 1931-1941 |
Enriqueta Pinto | Chile | Manuel Bulnes | President | Argentina | 1841–1851 |
Cecilia Arboleda Mosquera | Colombia | Jorge Holguín | President | France | 1909, 1921–1922 |
Bertha Puga Martínez | Colombia | Alberto Lleras Camargo | President | Chile | 1958–1962 |
Cecilia de la Fuente Cortés | Colombia | Carlos Lleras Restrepo | President | Spain | 1966–1970 |
Carolina Isakson Proctor | Colombia | Virgilio Barco Vargas | President | United States | 1986–1990 |
Clotilde Ngouabi | Republic of Congo | Marien Ngouabi | President | France | 1969–1972 |
Sofía Matilde Joy Redman | Costa Rica | José María Castro Madriz | President | United Kingdom ( England) | 1859–1863 |
Elena Gallegos Rosales | Costa Rica | Julio Acosta García | President | El Salvador | 1920–1924 |
Yvonne Clays Spoelders | Costa Rica | Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia | President | Belgium | 1940–1944 |
Henrietta Boggs | Costa Rica | José Figueres Ferrer | President | United States | 1948–1949 |
Karen Olsen Beck | Costa Rica | José Figueres Ferrer | President | Denmark | 1970–1974 |
Marjorie Elliott Sypher | Costa Rica | Daniel Oduber Quirós | President | Canada | 1974–1978 |
Gloria Bejarano Almada | Costa Rica | Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier | President | Mexico | 1990–1994 |
José María Rico | Costa Rica | Laura Chinchilla | President | Spain | 2010–2014 |
Mercedes Peñas Domingo | Costa Rica | Luis Guillermo Solís | President | Spain | 2014–2018 |
Signe Zeicate | Costa Rica | Rodrigo Chaves Robles | President | Soviet Union (modern day Latvia) | 2022–present |
Lila Irene Clerides | Cyprus | Glafcos Clerides | President | British India (modern day India) | 1974, 1993–2003 |
Mimi Kyprianou | Cyprus | Spyros Kyprianou | President | Greece | 1977–1988 |
Stephen Kinnock | Denmark | Helle Thorning-Schmidt | Prime Minister | United Kingdom ( Wales) | 2011–2015 |
Sólrun Løkke Rasmussen | Denmark | Lars Løkke Rasmussen | Prime Minister | Faroe Islands (constituent county of Denmark) | 2009–2011, 2015–2019 |
Carmen Quidiello | Dominican Republic | Juan Bosch | President | Cuba | 1963 |
Renée Klang de Guzmán | Dominican Republic | Antonio Guzmán Fernández | President | Venezuela | 1978–1982 |
Kirsty Sword Gusmão | East Timor | Xanana Gusmão | President | Australia | 2002–2007 |
Joy Aquino Siapno | East Timor | Fernando de Araújo | President | Philippines | 2008 |
Ana Paredes Arosemena | Ecuador | Eloy Alfaro | President | Republic of New Granada (modern day Panama) | 1906–1911 |
Corina del Parral | Ecuador | José María Velasco Ibarra | President | Argentina | 1944–1947, 1952–1956, 1960–1961, 1968–1972 |
Alicia Pizzimbono | Ecuador | Alfredo Poveda | President | Argentina | 1976–1979 |
María Eugenia Cordovez | Ecuador | León Febres Cordero | President | Peru | 1984–1988 |
Josefina Villalobos | Ecuador | Sixto Durán Ballén | President | United States | 1992–1996 |
Anne Malherbe Gosselin | Ecuador | Rafael Correa | President | Belgium | 2007–2017 |
Vanda Pignato | El Salvador | Mauricio Funes | President | Brazil | 2009–2014 |
Regina Abelt | Ethiopia | Negasso Gidada | President | West Germany (modern day Germany) | 1995–2001 |
Penelope Fillon | France | François Fillon | Prime Minister | United Kingdom ( Wales) | 2007–2012 |
Carla Bruni | France | Nicolas Sarkozy | President | Italy | 2008–2012 |
Edith Lucie Bongo | Gabon | Omar Bongo | President | Republic of Congo | 1989–2009 |
Sylvia Bongo Ondimba | Gabon | Ali Bongo Ondimba | President | France | 2009–2023 |
Sandra Roelofs | Georgia | Mikheil Saakashvili | President | Netherlands | 2008–2013 |
Rut Brandt | Germany | Willy Brandt | Chancellor | Norway | 1969–1974 |
Fathia Nkrumah | Ghana | Kwame Nkrumah | President | Egypt | 1960–1966 |
Mildred Christina Akosiwor Fugar | Ghana | Joseph Arthur Ankrah | President | Belgian Congo (modern day Democratic Republic of the Congo) | 1966–1969 |
Mary Stuart, Countess of Bute | Kingdom of Great Britain | John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute | Prime Minister | Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) | 1762–1763 |
Algeria Benton de Reyna | Guatemala | José María Reina Barrios | President | United States | 1892–1898 |
Elisa Martínez Contreras | Guatemala | Juan José Arévalo | President | Argentina | 1945–1951 |
Maria Cristina Vilanova | Guatemala | Jacobo Árbenz | President | El Salvador | 1951–1954 |
Elsa Cirigliano | Guatemala | Fernando Romeo Lucas García | President | Venezuela | 1978–1982 |
Patricia Escobar | Guatemala | Álvaro Arzú | President | El Salvador | 1996–2000 |
Lauriane Doumbouya | Guinea | Mamady Doumbouya | President | France | 2021–present |
Janet Jagan | Guyana | Cheddi Jagan | President | United States | 1992–1997 |
Mildred Trouillot | Haiti | Jean-Bertrand Aristide | President | United States | 2001–2004 |
Sophia Martelly | Haiti | Michel Martelly | President | United States | 2011–2016 |
Bessie Watson | Honduras | Carlos Roberto Reina | President | United States | 1994–1998[6] |
Mary Flake de Flores | Honduras | Carlos Roberto Flores | President | United States | 1998–2002 |
Aguas Santas Ocaña Navarro | Honduras | Ricardo Maduro | President | Spain | 2002–2006 |
Georgia Björnsson | Iceland | Sveinn Björnsson | President | Denmark | 1944–1952 |
Dorrit Moussaieff | Iceland | Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson | President | Israel | 2003–2016 |
Eliza Reid | Iceland | Guðni Th. Jóhannesson | President | Canada | 2016–present |
Lucy Kurtz | Ireland | Douglas Hyde | President | Prussia (modern day Germany) | 1938–1945 |
Máirín Uí Dhálaigh | Ireland | Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh | President | British India (modern day India) | 1974–1976 |
Joan O'Farrell | Ireland | Garret FitzGerald | Taoiseach | United Kingdom ( England) | 1981–1982, 1982–1987 |
Nicholas Robinson | Ireland | Mary Robinson | President | Netherlands | 1990–1997 |
Martin McAleese | Ireland | Mary McAleese | President | United Kingdom ( Northern Ireland) | 1997–2011 |
Janaki Venkataraman | India | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | President | British Burma (modern day Myanmar) | 1987–1992 |
Sonia Gandhi | India | Rajiv Gandhi | Prime Minister | Italy | 1984–1989 |
Usha Narayanan | India | K. R. Narayanan | President | British Burma (modern day Myanmar) | 1997–2002 |
Vera Weizmann | Israel | Chaim Weizmann | President | Russian Empire (modern day Russia) | 1949–1952 |
Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi | Israel | Yitzhak Ben-Zvi | President | Russian Empire (modern day Ukraine) | 1952–1963 |
Rachel Katznelson-Shazar | Israel | Zalman Shazar | President | Russian Empire (modern day Belarus) | 1963–1973 |
Nina Katzir | Israel | Ephraim Katzir | President | Poland | 1973–1978 |
Aura Herzog | Israel | Chaim Herzog | President | Egypt | 1983–1993 |
Reuma Weizman | Israel | Ezer Weizman | President | United Kingdom ( England) | 1993–2000 |
Sonia Peres | Israel | Shimon Peres | President | Poland (modern day Ukraine) | 2007–2011 |
Dominique Ouattara | Ivory Coast | Alassane Ouattara | President | French Algeria (modern day Algeria) | 2011–present |
Kayoko Hosowaka | Japan | Morihiro Hosokawa | Prime Minister | Manchukuo (modern day China) | 1993–1994 |
Miyuki Hatoyama | Japan | Yukio Hatoyama | Prime Minister | China | 2009–2010 |
Andra Levite | Latvia | Egils Levits | President of Latvia | West Germany (modern day Germany) | 2019–present |
Rosé Rene Poitieux | Lebanon | Fouad Chehab | President | France | 1952, 1958–1964[7] |
Iris Handaly | Lebanon | Suleiman Frangieh | President | Egypt | 1970–1976 |
Clar Weah | Liberia | George Weah | President of Liberia | Jamaica | 2018–2024 |
Ethel Mutharika | Malawi | Bingu wa Mutharika | President | Southern Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) | 2004–2007 |
Richard Banda | Malawi | Joyce Banda | President | Northern Rhodesia (modern day Zambia) | 2012–2014 |
Iris Falcam | Micronesia | Leo Falcam | President | United States | 1999–2003 |
Georgeta Snegur | Moldova | Mircea Snegur | President | Romania | 1990–1997 |
Anastasia Filatova | Mongolia | Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal | Chairman | Soviet Union (modern day Russia) | 1952–1984 |
Christina Massey | New Zealand | William Massey | Prime Minister | Australia | 1912–1925 |
Janet Fraser | New Zealand | Peter Fraser | Prime Minister | United Kingdom ( Scotland) | 1940–1945 |
Peter Davis | New Zealand | Helen Clark | Prime Minister | United Kingdom ( England) | 1999–2008 |
Isabel Urcuyo | Nicaragua | Luis Somoza Debayle | President | Costa Rica | 1956–1963 |
Hope Portocarrero | Nicaragua | Anastasio Somoza Debayle | President | United States | 1974–1979 |
Nahid Mirza | Pakistan | Iskander Mirza | President | Iran | 1956–1958 |
Nusrat Bhutto | Pakistan | Zulfikar Ali Bhutto | President | Iran | 1971–1973 |
Shafiq Zia | Pakistan | Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq | President | Uganda | 1977–1988 |
Viqar-un-Nisa Noon | Pakistan | Feroz Khan Noon | Prime Minister | Austria | 1957–1958 |
Adela Ruiz de Royo | Panama | Aristides Royo | President | Spain | 1978–1982 |
Yazmín Colón de Cortizo | Panama | Laurentino Cortizo | President | Puerto Rico ( United States) | 2019–present |
Eliza Lynch | Paraguay | Francisco Solano López | President | United Kingdom (modern day Ireland) | 1862–1870 |
Eliane Karp | Peru | Alejandro Toledo | President | France | 2001–2006 |
Pilar Nores de García | Peru | Alan García | President | Argentina | 1985–1990, 2006–2011 |
Nancy Lange | Peru | Pedro Pablo Kuczynski | President | United States | 2016–2018 |
Maria Piłsudska | Poland | Józef Piłsudski | President | Lithuania | 1918–1921 |
Elzira Dantas Machado | Portugal | Bernardino Machado | President | Empire of Brazil (modern day Brazil) | 1915–1917, 1925–1926 |
Jeannette Kagame | Rwanda | Paul Kagame | President | Burundi | 2000–present |
Colette Senghor | Senegal | Léopold Sédar Senghor | President | France | 1960–1980 |
Viviane Wade | Senegal | Abdoulaye Wade | President | France | 2000–2012 |
Noor Aishah Mohammad Salim | Singapore | Yusof Ishak | President | Malaysia | 1965–1970 |
Graça Machel | South Africa | Nelson Mandela | President | Portuguese Mozambique (modern day Mozambique) | 1998–1999 |
Franziska Donner | South Korea | Syngman Rhee | President | Austria-Hungary (modern day Austria) | 1948–1960 |
Rose-Marie Belle Antoine | Saint Lucia | Kenny Anthony | Prime Minister | Trinidad and Tobago | 1997–2006, 2011–2016 |
Patricia Mae Mitchell | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | James Fitz-Allen Mitchell | Prime Minister | Canada | 1984–2000[8] |
Eloise Harris | St. Vincent and the Grenadines | Ralph Gonsalves | Prime Minister | Trinidad and Tobago | 2001–present[9] |
Asma al-Assad | Syria | Bashar al-Assad | President | United Kingdom ( England) | 2000–present |
Oei Hui-lan | Taiwan | Wellington Koo | President | Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) | 1926–1927 |
Chiang Fang-liang | Taiwan | Chiang Ching-kuo | President | Russian Empire (modern day Belarus) | 1978–1988 |
Christine Chow Ma | Taiwan | Ma Ying-jeou | President | Hong Kong | 2008–2016 |
Reema Harrysingh-Carmona | Trinidad and Tobago | Anthony Carmona | President | United States | 2013–2018 |
Moufida Bourguiba | Tunisia | Habib Bourguiba | President | France | 1957–1961 |
Beatrix Marzouki | Tunisia | Moncef Marzouki | President | France | 2011–2014 |
Siren Ennaceur | Tunisia | Mohamed Ennaceur | President | Norway | 2019 |
Kateryna Yushchenko | Ukraine | Viktor Yushchenko | President | United States | 2005–2010 |
Marina Wheeler | United Kingdom | Boris Johnson | Prime Minister | West Berlin (modern day Germany) | 2019–2020 |
Akshata Murty | United Kingdom | Rishi Sunak | Prime Minister | India | 2022–present |
Louisa Adams | United States | John Quincy Adams | President | Kingdom of Great Britain ( England) | 1825–1829 |
Melania Trump | United States | Donald Trump | President | Yugoslavia (modern day Slovenia) | 2017–2021 |
Matilde Ibáñez Tálice | Uruguay | Luis Batlle Berres | President | Argentina | 1947–1951 |
Charlotte Harland Scott | Zambia | Guy Scott | President | United Kingdom ( England) | 2014–2015 |
Sally Mugabe | Zimbabwe | Robert Mugabe | President | Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) | 1987–1992 |
Grace Mugabe | Zimbabwe | Robert Mugabe | President | Union of South Africa (modern day South Africa) | 1996–2017 |