Former US President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn are marking their 73rd wedding anniversary.

The Carters are approaching George HW Bush and Barbara Bush as the longest-married presidential couple in American history.

They married on July 7 1946 in a Methodist church in their home town of Plains, Georgia, when he was 21 and she was 18.

Mr and Mrs Bush wed on January 6 1945.

They had been married 73 years and 111 days when Mrs Bush died in April 2018.

The Carters have three sons, one daughter, eight grandsons, three granddaughters and two great-grandsons.

Mr Carter, a Democrat, was president from 1977 to 1981. He is 94.