John Alario, Trina Edwards planning small summer wedding

Publish date: 2024-09-02

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Former Senate President John Alario and Trina Edwards are making plans for a small wedding after dating for just over a year.

Alario, who served 48 years in the state legislature, and Trina Edwards, the widow of former governor Edwin Edwards, will be married this summer.

“She was looking for advice. Some people were calling her for days, lawyers and politicians, and she would call me and say they were nice guys or whatever, and finally, I said, why don’t you date me then and let’s try that and see, and she took the bait,” Alario said.

Trina says it was she who made the first move.

“We were talking, just as friends for a while. I would call him for advice about certain things, and I kept hinting around that I would like to go out. I just said it very specifically and he asked me to go to a football game and we’ve been seeing each other ever since,” said Edwards.

Alario has been a widower for 17 years, since his first wife Ree passed away, and has developed a relationship with Trina’s son, Eli, who is now nine years old.

Trina says the possibility of re-marrying was something that she and Edwin discussed with Eli prior to the former governor’s death in July of 2021.

“Obviously I’m still young and I have a lot of life left. I don’t think he ever doubted that I would get married,” said Edwards.

Alario and Edwards will be wed at the Louisiana State Supreme Court building with Chief Justice John Weimer officiating. They say they hope to keep the ceremony small.

“We have so many friends on both sides. We’re so afraid if we had a big wedding, we would leave somebody out. We don’t want that to happen,” said Alario.

Alario, 79, is 35 years older than his fiancé.

“I have decided that’s what I like. Everybody has a type, some people like younger guys, some like older guys, some women like other women. That is just what it is, and there’s no reason for me not to do what I am happy doing,” said Edwards.

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