McCay stood barely five feet () tall, and felt dominated by his wife, who was nearly as tall as he was. McCay married Maude Leonore Dufour, the youngest of three daughters of French-Canadian carriage painter John Dufour. About a decade separated the couple's ages: Maude was 14 when they married. Biographer Canemaker speculates this may explain the lack of certainty behind McCay's birthdate, even by McCay himself, as he may have claimed to be younger than he was to justify marrying a teenaged girl. Maude was also age-conscious: she preferred her grandchildren to call her "Nan" instead of "Grandma" and dyed her hair as she got older. The McCays took on the traditional roles of a married couple of the time, in that Winsor was the breadwinner and Maude the homemaker. Neither spouse got along well with the other's mother.