GOP Lawmaker Accused Of Grooming Wife 25 Years Younger After Viral Sensation Son Mistaken For His Grandson

Tennessee GOP Rep. John Rose's marriage has come under scrutiny after his son went viral on social media Monday.

A video shared by C-Span on X, formerly Twitter, captured Rose's 6-year-old son, Guy, pulling silly and funny faces behind his father as the 59-year-old lawmaker delivered remarks on the House floor on Monday.

After the video went viral, however, accusations that Rose "groomed" his wife Chelsea, who is 25 years his junior, resurfaced after social media users mistook the Republican congressman's son for his grandson.

One X user tweeted that they initially thought it was adorable that Rose had brought his "grandson" to work until they looked up reports on how the lawmaker met his wife.

"Oh....oh god. No," the user wrote of their reaction.

While Rose's wife was already of legal age when they wed, a number of social media users suspected that he may have groomed Chelsea, whom he met when she was in high school and married a few years later when she was 21.

"His kid making faces is funny but Congressman John Rose met his wife when she was in high school at an FFA event, gave her a scholarship to college, and then married her when she was 21 and he was 45. He'd also like to be Tennessee's next governor," another X user wrote.

"The age gap between John Rose and his wife is 20 years. You don't have to be in the entertainment industry you just gotta be a man with power and money to attract young girls. It's sick how men constantly create this power dynamic against us," another claimed.

"Ah yes... John Rose who started grooming his future wife at 17 when he was 42. We love our Reps craven and creepy," a fourth person alleged.

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According to Prospect.org and the Daily Mail, Rose seemingly met his now-wife during a Tennessee farming convention in 2007.

At the time, Chelsea was a 17-year-old high school student competing in the state's 79th annual Future Farmers of America (FFA) convention. Rose was 42 and attended the event as vice chairman of the board of the Tennessee FFA.

However, Prospect suggested that it's possible the pair met before the convention as Chelsea "began her involvement with FFA in 2003," when she was a freshman in high school, according to a press release.

Shortly after the FFA convention, Chelsea was awarded the Jerry and Betty Williams Rose Scholarship, which was named after the GOP lawmaker's parents, to attend Tennessee Technical University.

It is unclear when exactly Rose's romantic relationship with Chelsea began.

But Rose and Chelsea got engaged and tied the knot less than four years after the FFA convention, local paper Eagleville Times reported at the time.

Rose, then 45, was chairman of the board of Tennessee Technical University, while Chelsea was a 21-year-old student at the school.

In 2010, Chelsea expressed how thankful she was for the scholarship and said Rose "coached" her throughout the process of applying for it.

"John has made everything possible that I've done in FFA beyond high school. Through the scholarship that he provides, I've not had to have a job through college," Chelsea told Murfreesboro Post.

"I've been able to train, improve, focus on FFA and focus on school. That scholarship has made all the difference," she added. "[John] has also coached me during my preparation, which has been extremely helpful."

Rose and Chelsea have remained married since and welcomed their son Guy in 2017 and his younger brother, Sam, in 2021.