Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
- Gaetz told Vanity Fair he asked for Donald Trump's approval before proposing to his now-wife Ginger Luckey.
- Gaetz, 39, and Luckey, 26, met at Mar-a-Lago in March 2020 and got engaged there in December 2020.
- Federal investigators are currently probing whether the Florida congressman paid a 17-year-old girl for sex.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Rep. Matt Gaetz said he asked for former President Donald Trump's approval before proposing to his now-wife Ginger Luckey, with whom he eloped over the weekend amid a federal sex trafficking probe.
The Florida Republican, 39, and Luckey, 26, met at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in March 2020 and the two got engaged at the same Trump-owned resort on December 30, 2020.
"You never want to upstage the big guy," Gaetz told Vanity Fair, adding that Trump called him and his then-fiance "a dynamic duo" and sent a bottle of his company's champagne to their table.
Gaetz is under federal investigation as part of the inquiry that led his close friend, Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole county, Florida tax collector, to plead guiltyto six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a child. As part of his plea deal, Greenberg is continuing to cooperate with federal investigators on a larger sex trafficking probe. Gaetz is being investigated for allegedly violating sex trafficking laws and having sex with a 17-year-old girl. He's denied any wrongdoing.
The couple previously said they'd get married in August 2022, but instead eloped on Saturday on Catalina Island in California with about 40 guests in attendance.
Luckey's mother, Julie Luckey, is active in GOP politics and had donated to Gaetz's campaign before she brought her daughter to the March 2020 Mar-a-Lago event, which featured a slew of other MAGA leaders. Ginger Luckey, who is based in California and works for a biotech start up, is the sister of Palmer Luckey, who sold his VR company to Facebook for $3 billion in 2014. Ginger's younger sister, Roxanne, made headlines last month when she called Gaetz a "literal pedophile" and said Gaetz tried to set her up with his 40-year-old friend when she was 19.