Lindsey Graham Reflects on Remaining Unmarried and the Role Family Has Played in His Life

For much of his public career, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has spoken candidly about why he never married, saying it wasn’t a deliberate choice so much as a matter of timing and circumstance.

In his 2015 memoir, My Story, Graham wrote that although he hoped to marry someday, life never quite aligned the way he expected. “The opportunity never presented itself at the right time, or I never found time to meet the right girl, or the right girl was smart enough not to have time for me,” he wrote, as quoted by Politico.

Graham has said that his closest romantic relationships occurred in his 20s while serving in the Air Force and stationed in Germany. One relationship was with a fellow JAG officer he identified only as Carol. Another was with Sylvia, a Lufthansa flight attendant from Austria, to whom he says he nearly proposed. Ultimately, he explained, practical concerns — including aging parents and career demands — made a long-term future difficult.

“Her mother was elderly, and I wasn’t going to stay in Germany. I didn’t think she wanted to come back to South Carolina,” Graham told GoUpstate in 2015.

As his political career grew, Graham often joked about his bachelor status — including during his 2016 presidential bid — saying he could still relate to and represent Americans from all walks of life. Over the years, public curiosity about his personal life has persisted, but Graham has repeatedly said his unmarried status reflects circumstance, not secrecy, and has emphasized that being single has not meant being without family.

Family, he has often noted, has shaped his life more than anything else. After the death of both parents within just over a year, Graham — then 22 — helped raise his younger sister, Darline Nordone, who was 13 at the time.

“Lindsey assured me that he was going to take care of me, he was going to be there for me. He never let me down,” Nordone told The State in 2014.

Their close relationship continued into adulthood, and Graham once joked during the 2016 campaign that Nordone could step in as first lady if he ever became president.

While Graham never married, he has consistently said that the path his life took — public service, caring for family, and focusing on work — is simply where circumstances led him.