15. When Julia met President Tyler for the first time, he was a married man with two children while she was just 21
Julia first met the President and his family on 20 January 1842. For several months, Julia’s father had been building his contacts in Washington and he was rewarded with an official invitation to the White House. While President Tyler’s wife of some 27 years Letitia was unable to attend since she was gravely ill in bed after suffering from a severe stroke, the couple’s daughter Letitia Tyler Semple, as well as their daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler were there to serve as official hostesses.
The presence of the rest of the Tyler family, as well as of the President’s own daughter, make it highly unlikely that he would have flirted with the 21-year-old Julia on this occasion. Indeed, by all accounts, he was a loyal and loving husband to Letitia. However, the truth is that almost nothing is known of the first time the pair met, including whether it was love at first sight for the 50-something President or whether his infatuation started later.