Local News

Former mayor Marty Walsh reportedly weds longtime partner

Walsh and longtime girlfriend Lorrie Higgins reportedly tied the knot in a private ceremony in March.

Walsh and Higgins arrive for a state dinner during the visit of President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House in 2022. T.J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times

By Ross Cristantiello

July 9, 2024

Former Boston mayor Marty Walsh reportedly married his longtime girlfriend Lorrie Higgins in a private ceremony in March.

They were wed by a local justice of the peace on a trip to the Caribbean, according to reporting from CommonWealth Beacon.

The marriage comes more than a year after Walsh left the Biden administration for his current role as executive director of the NHL Players’ Association. He served as Boston’s mayor from 2014 to 2021 before taking the post of U.S. secretary of labor when President Joe Biden was elected.

A notably private person, Higgins was dubbed “Boston’s first girlfriend” by The Boston Globe in a 2014 profile. Walsh and Higgins both grew up in Dorchester and started dating eight years before Walsh became mayor while both were working at the State House. Higgins was a longtime legislative aide, and Walsh was serving as a state representative. Higgins said in an interview with the Globe that Walsh would ask her to dinner and movie dates before she finally decided to meet him at an Italian restaurant in Quincy.

The two hit it off, and Walsh developed a close relationship with Higgins and her daughter, Lauren. Higgins recalled how Lauren would urge her to “just marry him!” back in 2014. Ten years later, they have tied the knot.