Claim:
Photos authentically show a 94-year-old woman and 97-year-old man celebrating 76 years of being together.
Rating:
Fake ( About this rating? )
Context:
These fake pictures showed signs someone created them using an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool. For example, in the left-hand picture, the woman's right hand only had four fingers. Further, reverse-image searches for more information only found users reposting the fake pictures. Separately, in our research, we also noted a story of a real couple matching the same ages and number of years married. However, they did not look like the people in the AI-generated pictures.
A set of pictures circulating online purported to show photos of a young man and woman at their wedding and then the same couple in old age 76 years later.
For example, on Sept. 5, 2024, X user @lippyent shared ( archived ) the photo with the caption, "76 years together. She is 94 and he is 97. When something is real, it's forever." That post received nearly 2 million views.
Newsmax TV host Greta Van Susteren reposted ( archived ) @lippyent's post, adding the caption, "And still beautiful ….love this post."
Meanwhile, other Facebook users also posted either the same story or a slightly altered caption reading, " 76 years of marriage. She's 94 years old, he's 97. When something is real, it lasts forever." Some of those posts received many thousands of likes and shares.
However, neither picture was real. First, reverse-image searches for both pictures only found reposts of the same story with no originating news article or other legitimizing data. Further, both images displayed signs one or more people created them with at least one artificial-intelligence (AI) tool. We will update this story if we uncover any details about the person or people who created the pictures.
She Has Four Fingers
The popular X account Insane Facebook AI slop (@FacebookAIslop) shares content reflecting its name: "insane" AI-generated images that Facebook users believe and eat up like a bucket of slop.
On Sept. 6, @FacebookAIslop posted ( archived ) of @lippyent's post, "41k likes but she has 4 fingers." They were correct, seeing as the picture on the left side of the image showed four fingers on the woman's right hand.
Missing fingers or extra fingers can be one of several signs of AI-image manipulation.
As for the second picture of the older couple, anyone who has run across AI-generated pictures of fake elderly men and women could likely sense AI's involvement simply by glancing at the familiar look of the lighting and skin on their faces.
Based on a True Story?
Separate from the fake photos, our search for news about any couples celebrating 76 years of marriage ultimately landed on a true story about a man and woman whose ages matched the alleged ages of the subjects in the aforementioned posts.
On July 11, 2024, Fox 8 News in Cleveland, Ohio, reported the story of Donald and Shirley Hartig, who married on July 10, 1948. At the time they published the article, Donald was 97 and Shirley was 94 — the same ages from the story shared alongside the AI-generated photos. The article featured a video interview with the Hartigs, who did not look like the fake people in the AI-generated pictures.
The article read, in part:
Both born and raised in Wyandotte County, Kansas, they were 18 and 21 when they met through friends.
"We were together about three and a half to four years before we got married, and I had to wait until she got through with school," Donald Hartig said.
And the rest, well, just hear it for yourself.
"Some of our friends said, 'We'll give you three years. This is not going to work,' and they're all dead now, so can't prove anything," Shirley Hartig said.
We noted Fox 17 WXMI reported in June 2024 on another couple named Earl and Erma VanNortwick who also reportedly celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary, albeit at the slightly different ages of 96 and 93.
For further reading, we previously reported about other fake photos shared with claims they showed elderly quadruplets pictured together.
Sources:
"Hudsonville Couple Celebrate 76 Years of a Loving Marriage." YouTube, Fox 17 WXMI, 26 June 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pba4IH16jTw .
Martinez, Crystal. "Missouri Couple Celebrates 76 Years of Marriage." Fox 8 News , 11 July 2024, https://fox8.com/news/missouri-couple-celebrates-76-years-of-marriage/ .
"Search with an Image on Google - Computer." Google Search Help , https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808 .
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