Married to a cheerleader and father of four; All you need to know about the 72nd United States secretary of state Marco Rubio

Well, for what it’s worth - faces don’t lie!
At least, Marco Rubio’s face didn’t.
While US President Donald Trump and his VP JD Vance were busy giving a dressing down to the Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right at the heart of the United States of America -
Marco Rubio sat there, by Vance’s side, visibly ‘embarrassed’.
Here’s what happened:
During an Oval Office press conference on Friday, Trump, Vance, and Zelenskyy argued heatedly. Tensions erupted shortly after a reporter asked Trump whether he had "aligned himself too much with Putin." When Vance touted the Trump administration's approach to "diplomacy," Zelenskyy pointed out that Putin had violated a previous ceasefire agreement. Vance then accused Zelenskyy of "disrespecting" the U.S. by "litigating in front of the American media" instead of accepting a ceasefire deal without any security guarantees.
After Zelenskyy said that the U.S. would "feel" the consequences of Russia's invasion in the future, a furious Trump interjected that the Ukrainian president was "not really in a good position right now" and was "gambling with World War III."
The press conference only deteriorated from there, with Trump and Vance raising their voices while addressing Zelenskyy and ending the meeting less than 10 minutes later.

All the while, Rubio was seen sitting by Vance’s side, looking ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘embarrassed’. Although, in the interview, Rubio maintained that Zelenskyy is welcome back to the White House when he is “ready to make peace and he’s serious about peace,” Rubio’s facial expressions made it to the internet, eventually triggering a meme-fest!
Former MSNBC anchor Medhi Hasan, commenting on a video showing Rubio during the exchange between Glenn and Zelensky in a post to X, formerly Twitter: "What a joke this country has become. Far right Trump flatterers cosplaying as journalists in the Oval Office. Rubio sitting there rightly looking embarrassed."
Influencer Pekka Kallioniemi, while sharing a video clip of Rubio during the same moment on X: "'I've made a HUGE mistake' - Marco Rubio, probably."
Jim Newell, a senior politics writer at Slate, sharing an image on X of Rubio appearing displeased during the meeting: "How we doin bud?"
Here’s what to know about Marco Rubio.

Marco Antonio Rubio is an American politician, diplomat, and attorney serving as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, acting administrator of USAID, and acting archivist of the United States since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator from Florida from 2011 to 2025 and was a candidate for president of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries.

After serving as a city commissioner for West Miami in the 1990s, Rubio, a Cuban American from Miami, Florida, was elected in 2000 to represent the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives. Subsequently, he was elected speaker of the Florida House; he served for two years, beginning in November 2006. Upon leaving the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, Rubio taught at Florida International University.

In a three-way race, Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. In April 2015, he launched a presidential bid instead of seeking reelection. He suspended his campaign for the presidency on March 15, 2016, after losing to Donald Trump in the Florida Republican primary. He then ran for reelection to the Senate and won a second term. Despite his criticism of Trump during his presidential campaign, Rubio endorsed him before the 2016 general election and was largely supportive of his presidency. Due to his influence on U.S. policy on Latin America during the first Trump administration, he was described as a "virtual secretary of state for Latin America". He is also considered to have been one of Congress's most hawkish members with regard to China and the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government sanctioned him twice in 2020, and he is banned from entering China. Rubio became Florida's senior senator in January 2019, following the defeat of former senator Bill Nelson, and was reelected to a third term in 2022, defeating Democratic nominee Val Demings in a landslide victory. Rubio endorsed Trump for president in 2024, days before the Iowa caucuses.
In November 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Rubio to be Secretary of State in his second administration. Rubio was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and took office on January 21, 2025. He is the first Hispanic to serve in the position, making him the highest-ranking Hispanic American official in U.S. history. Rubio is also the first Floridian to serve as Secretary of State.

Rubio, born in Miami, Florida, is the second son and third child of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales (née García) Rubio. His parents were Cubans who immigrated to the United States in 1956 during the regime of Fulgencio Batista, two and a half years before Fidel Castro ascended to power after the Cuban Revolution. His mother made at least four return trips to Cuba after Castro's takeover, including a month-long trip in 1961.
Neither of Rubio's parents were U.S. citizens at the time of Rubio's birth, but they applied for U.S. citizenship and were naturalized in 1975. Some relatives of Rubio's were admitted to the U.S. as refugees.
Rubio's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956 but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. When he fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. in 1962 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant, and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported. Immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, the deportation order was not enforced, and Garcia was given a legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Garcia re-applied for permanent resident status in 1966 following the passage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, at which point his residency was approved.
Rubio enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather during his childhood.
Rubio is Catholic and attends Mass at the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, Florida. He previously attended Christ Fellowship, a Southern Baptist Church in West Kendall, Florida.
In 1998, Rubio married Jeanette Dousdebes, a former bank teller and Miami Dolphins cheerleader, in a Catholic ceremony at the Church of the Little Flower.

Like Rubio himself, Jeanette too has had her brush with politics.
During the race for speaker, she was enlisted by her husband to manage the political action committees he used to support his travel and consultants, a decision he later described as a "disaster" as it confused financial transactions related to travel and expenses, due to "inexperience, sloppiness and a blur of paperwork" according to a report by the Tampa Bay Times. However, unlike many spouses of presidential candidates, Rubio did not make campaign speeches.
Rubio's campaign spotlighted her career as a Dolphins cheerleader in a television ad broadcast shortly before the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, and the NFL playoffs.
The Rubios have four children, and the family lives in West Miami, Florida.