5 Interesting things we learned about Pope Leo XIV from his brother

When Pope Leo XIV emerged on the balcony on May 8, 2025, most of the world had no earthly idea who he was.

But for John Prevost? Suddenly his younger brother was the spiritual leader of a billion Catholics, and everyone wanted to know more about the boy from the South Side of Chicago.

The elder Prevost — the middle of the three boys — recently sat down with the National Catholic Reporter to discuss what it was like growing up with the future pope. The interview was published in two parts. Here are some of the highlights that he revealed about Pope Leo.

The Prevosts were a family of five, with one car. And while the family typically got along well, "the biggest arguments were over who got the car."

But when the youngest Prevost was back home from his seminary boarding school, those arguments were over, said John Prevost.

"When Rob came home, it didn't matter, Rob got the car. "

The Prevosts always ate dinner together every night at 5:30, and always said grace before meals, said John Prevost. Mrs. Prevost would cook one dinner, and the boys "ate what you were served or you didn't eat."

"Rob was very good at eating everything," he said. "I'm not."

Well, he used to. On a recent visit to Rome in October, Pope Leo XIV gave his older brother back the key he kept. (And a gift certificate.) This is one of the most poignant moments of the interviews.

"That hit me big time, because it's over," said John Prevost. "He always had a key to where I lived in case he was in town and I wasn't home. But now that he's pope, he gave me that key back, and that hit."

The Pope also gave his brother a gift certificate he had lying around, because he couldn't use it himself any longer.

"He is always watching soccer, he still does follow that," said John Prevost. While he doesn't think his brother is able to watch baseball games any longer (which makes sense, given the time difference between Rome and North America), "he knows who's won and who's lost, so somehow he's paying attention."

Pope Leo wakes up early in the morning, and will often jump on a game like Words with Friends in the wee hours of the morning if he can't sleep, said John Prevost.

The elder Prevost also said he thought reports that his brother logged on to the language-learning app Duolingo at 3 a.m. were plausible.

"I don't doubt that because he's currently working on German," said John Prevost.

"When the refurbishing is done at the Apsotolic Palace, he's hoping to put in some gym equipment so he could do some work there," said John Prevost.

This isn't the first time John Prevost has spoken about his brother. See a summary of an earlier interview below:

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