What happened to Chuck Grassley? Age and family life explored as the oldest member of The Senate is hospitalized 

Republican Chuck Grassley, currently the oldest member of the U.S. Senate, is hospitalized and undergoing antibiotic infusions to combat an infection.

The piece of news was reported by Chuck Grassley's office to several media outlets, including Reuters, on Tuesday, January 16. They told the news outlet that he “is in good spirits and will return to work as soon as possible following doctors’ orders,” but provided no other details at this point.

Notably, antibiotic infusions, like the one Senator Grassley is undergoing, are usually meant for serious kinds of infections and are administered intravenously when oral antibiotics do not work. However, so far, the nature of the senator's infection remains undisclosed, as reported by ABC News.

In the wake of his hospitalization, here’s a look at his family life. The 90-year-old Iowa senator is married to Barbara Speicher, and the couple has five children.

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All you need to know about Chuck Grassley’s personal life

The sixth longest-serving member of the Senate and now the house’s oldest representative, Chuck Grassley, tied the knot with Barbara Ann Speicher in 1954 and will be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary this August, as per CBS.

Together, the couple shares five kids, namely Lee, Wendy, Robin, Michele, and Jay. They also have nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. One of his grandsons is Pat Grassley, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives who has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather.

As per Chuck Grassley’s spokesperson, he and his wife visited Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa, in August 2019 to celebrate their 65th anniversary and took a day off from work, as told to CBS.

While Chuck Grassley is known for his active schedule and work ethic, his wife, Barbara Grassley, is a cancer prevention advocate, having survived breast cancer herself over three decades ago.

Associated with Iowa State University and featured in their “Plaza of Heroines,” Barbara Grassley, an alumna of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), is also a member of the Congressional Club and Senate Spouses Association. When she married Senator Chuck, she left her studies, only to return years later and graduate with an accounting degree in 1983, as per her bio on the Iowa State University Plaza of Heroines official website.

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Chuck Grassley's career at a glance

The seniormost member of the Senate won his first election in 1980 and has been re-elected in Iowa seven times ever since. Currently, he is the Republican leader on the Senate Budget Committee.

Before joining the Senate, he had been an Iowa State Legislator since 1956 and first joined politics at the age of 23. After serving nearly two decades in the role, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and thus entered Congress.

He became the oldest senator last year when Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California passed away at the age of 90. She was his senior by three months. Until 2021, he was the president pro tempore of the Senate, meaning he presided over the house and oversaw everyday proceedings. He is third in the line of presidential succession.

Notably, Senator Grassley was last hospitalized in mid-2023 for hip surgery, as per the Associated Press, and even used a medical scooter to move around in the Senate. Otherwise, the nonagenarian is known to keep good health.