Plains, Georgia - The wife of former US president Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn, has entered hospice care at her home in the southern state of Georgia, her family said Friday.

The 96-year-old former first lady was diagnosed with dementia in May, according to the Carter Center.

She has now "entered hospice care at home. She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family," their grandson, Jason Carter, said in a brief statement.

He also thanked well-wishers for the "outpouring of love and support."

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The family announced in February this year that Jimmy Carter (99) entered hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia – the same modest house he and Rosalynn have lived in since the 1960s.

The Carters married in 1946 and hold several longevity records in US politics: the longest-wed presidential couple and, for Jimmy Carter, the oldest-living president in US history.