Two letters from previously married faculty?

[ChooseHappily]

So given my challenges with getting a recommendation letter from a professor I worked with who is on leave, I am in a fortunate fallback situation with my letters of rec. I have a professor willing to write me a letter who I took a class with and who has also gotten to know me outside of school through my volunteer work. She is no doubt a top notch recommender for my applications - she has written a ton of books, has a great track record of journal articles and work in the field and I am definitely going to build on her work as part of the PhD work for the programs I'm applying to.

The (potential) problem? She used to be married to one of my other recommenders and they share the same last name. They worked at the same institution for a long time, and both are amazing to have recommendations from... But I have gotten advice from another professor not to have both of them on my application because it might look like I'm a "friend of the family."

I'm seeking advice - has anyone been in a similar situation? 

Thank you!

[throwaway_backpack]

That it would look like you are  a "friend of the family" sounds really weird to me. I've never been in a similar situation but I really don't understand that interpretation at all. There are plenty of professor couples out there so seeing letters from two of them would not be at all surprising. At least in my field I don't think there's any general perception that married professors aren't as professional as anyone else. I would use both recommenders - just my two cents.

[ChooseHappily]

Hi Throwaway_backpak,

Thanks for weighing in. I'm crossing my fingers now because I ended up asking them to cosign the same letter and they agreed - I worked on similar and related projects with them, so lack of diversity in my letters was another reason to for concern. I reached out to a professor who taught a policy class and I'm hoping she agrees to write a strong but standard (if necessary) letter about my policy work in her class, which would provide a third perspective on me specifically related to policy (my concentration).

 

But you're right - I think it's not a concern if the work we did was very different. Both professors have excellent records of academic accomplishment and are respected in their fields. I hope that having them cosign will be a benefit.