World’s two oldest men exchange birthday wishes as they turn 114 and 113
The world’s oldest man, Brazil’s João Marinho Neto, and the second-oldest, Australia’s Ken Weeks, exchanged birthday greetings as they turned 114 and 113 on October 5, Qazinform News Agency reports.
According to Guinness World Records, the two men were born exactly one year apart. To mark their shared birthday, they posed with homemade signs carrying messages of congratulations to each other across continents.
Marinho Neto was confirmed as the world’s oldest living man in November 2024, aged 112. This is his second birthday holding the title.
LongeviQuest chief executive Ben Meyers said the Brazilian is one of only nine men verified to have reached the age of 114. He is also Brazil’s oldest male resident on record.
Meyers noted that, because of differences in longevity between the sexes, men reaching 114 are rarer than women reaching 117. The world’s oldest living person, Britain’s Ethel Caterham, celebrated her 117th birthday in August.
King Charles had a touching moment with the world’s oldest living person, 116-year-old Ethel Caterham, who told him that “all the girls were in love” with him when he was invested as Prince of Wales in 1969 🥹 #kingcharles #royalfamily 📽️: @RoyalFamily https://t.co/aDXMCeBHdB
— HELLO! Canada (@HelloCanada) September 21, 2025
Marinho Neto currently ranks as the world’s tenth-oldest living person, with nine women ahead of him. He is the first man to enter the top ten since Venezuela’s Juan Vicente Pérez Mora died in April 2024.
Born into a farming family in Maranguape, in Brazil’s Ceará state, on October 5, 1912, Marinho Neto began helping his father in the fields at the age of four, tending cattle and harvesting fruit.
He has six surviving children, 22 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren. He previously attributed his longevity to surrounding himself with good people and keeping loved ones close.
The record for the oldest man ever belongs to Japan’s Jiroemon Kimura, who lived to 116 years and 54 days.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the HackAlem AI hackathon in Astana set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of participants in an AI hackathon, bringing together 2,415 people.