Pope Leo’s brother is a Florida man and self-described MAGA type—and believes his sibling is best man for job
Pope Leo’s brother is a Florida man and self-described MAGA type—and believes his sibling is best man for job
A social media post criticizing former Nancy Pelosi with a slur and insinuating that Pelosi’s husband is gay, was dredged up for the world to see.
By Kairi Lowery and Fresh Take Florida on Thu, May 15, 2025 at 11:37 am
Photo via Kairi Lowery/ Fresh Take Florida
Louis Prevost, brother of recently elected Pope Leo XIV, prepares for yet another online interview from one of many national reporters while in his Port Charlotte home on May 9, 2025.
A day before the conclave to elect a new pope, Louis Prevost called his younger brother, Robert Prevost, from over 5,000 miles away in southwest Florida and jokingly brainstormed names he could take if elected as pope.
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The brothers – one who has since become the world’s most important religious leader and the other a self-described MAGA type who has published profane and vulgar posts on social media – tried not to take the possibility too seriously.
“He comes out with, ‘I’m thinking about Sixtus,’” Louis said. “He went, ‘I’m gonna be Pope Sixtus the sixth.’”
When the white smoke poured out of St. Peter’s Basilica last week, signifying the conclave’s election of a new pope, and Cardinal Dominique Mamberti came out to announce which papal candidate won the ballot, 73-year-old Louis heard one letter from his home TV in Port Charlotte, Florida, a city just north of Fort Myers on Florida’s Gulf coast. He knew what had always just been a chance was confirmed. His brother was the pope.
“He finally came out and then said, ‘We have a new pope,” and then as soon as he went ‘R…’, you knew he was going to say Robert or Roberto,” he said. “Sure enough, [he said] ‘Robert,’ and that’s when my mind went ‘Rob’s the pope. Oh, my God.’”
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Moments later, Mamberti announced Robert’s chosen pope name; it wasn’t Pope Sixtus, Augustine, Stanislaus or even Pope Robert like the brothers joked about two days prior, but Pope Leo XIV.
“Pope Leo. What? Where’d you get that name from,” the pope’s brother in Florida said in an interview. “But it’s fine, it fits… it’s short and sweet.”
Now as the brother of one of the world’s most influential figures, Louis’ own writings, including an April 5 Facebook repost criticizing former congresswoman Nancy Pelosi with a slur and insinuating that Pelosi’s husband is gay, was dredged up for the world to see – although they’re no longer publicly visible.
This week, in an interview with Piers Morgan, Louis Prevost responded to the post and laughed, saying, “Well, I posted it, and I wouldn’t have posted it if I didn’t kind of believe it.”
Since the post, he’s been “very quiet” and has since bit his tongue sharing his political views on social media, to not create issues for his brother, despite his “MAGA type” beliefs, he said in the televised interview.
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Louis Prevost and his wife declined to answer questions this week about the matter with Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The couple sat for an interview at their home days earlier, before the social media posts began drawing attention to the pope’s Florida brother.
Personal politics aside, Louis was confident that after the first day of the conclave ended in billowing black smoke, his brother would be elected. After all, he was “one of the top three choices,” among the 133 eligible voting cardinals, he said.
As the first U.S.-born pontiff and Augustininan elected pope, 69-year-old Pope Leo XIV is historically unprecedented, but even as a child, signs of the papacy were always there, as even from a young age he said his brother always had a “little halo on his head.”
In true oldest-brother fashion, Louis would get him, and his two younger brothers, Robert and John, into trouble where the three grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. And oftentimes, it was Robert getting them out of trouble.
He recalled one instance where just at 7 years old, four years younger than him at the time, Robert saved them from a gang, after the three were riding bikes in a “druggies and gang bangers” part of town.
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“Rob’s like, ‘Let me talk to him,” got off his bike, went over there, talked to him for five, 10 minutes, and they all came back, shaking hands, hugging,” he said. “It’s been like that pretty much his whole life… he’s got the gift.”
From that moment on, he said he knew his brother’s childhood activities weren’t just a phase. And others saw it, too.
Instead of playing cops and robbers with Louis and John, Robert played priest. Every night before bed, Robert prayed the rosary. At his Catholic school, nuns saw him as a soon-to-be priest.
The reality didn’t dawn on Louis until Robert was named cardinal in 2023 by former Pope Francis.
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“It’s like, yeah, okay, right,” he said. “When he became cardinal it was like he’s eligible to be the next one. He could be the next pope. And sure enough, he’s the next one.”
Louis hopes his brother will bring about a new wave of Catholicism to the church. He hopes U.S. citizens will be inspired by his U.S. origins and re-immerse themselves in the religion by seeing Robert as a pope not on a pedestal, but a humanized, down-to-earth man who will listen to what everyone has to say.
He added that his relatable nature, along with his travels, citizenship in Peru, multilingual abilities and close relationship with Pope Francis, were most likely the most compelling factors in the conclave leading to his election.
“What more do you want in a pope?” Louis said. “If they’re really honest a
