Couple age gap
70 Celebrity Couples With Huge Age Gaps Between Them
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When you picture your perfect partner, you might imagine someone who is roughly as old as you are—or, at least in the same generation. But love doesn't always work that way, and these celebrity couples prove it despite an age difference of at least 10 years (in some cases, more than 30 years). These May-December romances, as they're called, have faced their share of criticism, but they're still going strong. Check out 70 famous couples who make it work despite huge age gaps.
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George Clooney and Amal Clooney
Age gap: 17 years
Beloved couple George and Amal Clooney have a pretty significant age gap between them. When the two met in 2013, “I thought she was beautiful, and I thought she was funny and obviously smart,” George told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview, and then joked that Amal “probably thought I was old."
The two were married in 2014, and welcomed twins Alexander and Ella later that year.
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Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith
Age gap: 11 years
This beyond-adorable pair have been married for *so* long. "My darling angel heart Keely, thank you for bringing such love and beauty into my life, for making these past twenty six years the greatest joy of my life...Happy anniversary my brown eyed girl," Pierce wrote in a 2020 Instagram caption. My heart!
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Princess Charlene and Prince Albert
Age gap: 20 years
This royal pair have been married over 10 years and have a set of twins together: Princess Gabriella, Countess of Carlades and Jacques Honore Rainier.
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Elton John and David Furnish
Age gap: 15 years
Elton John explores many of his past tumultuous relationships in the award-winning movie Rocketman.
While romance wasn’t always great for the star, he finally found the love of his life in Canadian filmmaker David Furnish. Aw!
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Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld
Age gap: 17 years
This pair got married in 1999, after only a year of dating. Jerry met Jessica at the gym while she was still with her first husband. Now they have three kids and are still going strong.
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Simon Cowell and Lauren Silverman
Age gap: 18 years
Simon and Lauren started secretly dating while she was married to her first husband, real estate mogul Andrew Silverman. However, after finding out she was pregnant with Simon's son in 2013, the two went public with their relationship.
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Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner
Age gap: 20 years
Kevin and Christine have been married since 2004.
The couple briefly broke up before their marriage after the
Yellowstone star said he didn’t want more kids (he already had four from previous relationships). He eventually changed his mind and the pair had three children together, making him a father of seven.
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David Tennant and Georgia Moffett Tennant
Age gap: 14 years
David and Georgia have been married for over 10 years and have five (five!) children together. The two met while filming an episode of Doctor Who, when Georgia played David's, ahem, daughter. (Kinda weird, but whatev! They're happy!)
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Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble
Age gap: 25 years
Kris and Corey have been dating since roughly 2014, following the momager's split with longtime spouse Caitlyn Jenner, co-parent to both Kendall and Kylie. While Corey gets along with almost everyone in the Kardashian family, there’s been some drama in the past between him and Kourtney after he tried to give her parenting advice.
Yikes!
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Steven Tyler and Aimee Preston
Age gap: 39 years
Steven and Aimee are still happily together. Aimee started as the Aerosmith frontman’s personal assistant, but the pair finally went public with their romantic relationship in 2016. Fun fact: She also used to work for Victoria Beckham and the Trump family.
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John Stamos and Caitlin McHugh
Age gap: 23 years
These two officially began seeing each other in 2015. They met on set of a Law and Order: SVU episode, and later got engaged at Disneyland, Caitlin’s favorite place (same!). In 2018, they welcomed their first child into the world and named him Billy. After the birth, John wrote on Instagram, “from now on, the best part of me will always be my wife and my son.” (BRB crying.)
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Kate Upton and Justin Verlander
Age gap: 9 years
Model Kate and baseball star Justin had their first date at an Aerosmith concert in Detroit.
After a year of being quiet about their relationship status, they made their relationship public in 2013. Now they’re married parents of one, as the power couple welcomed their first child in 2019.
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Nicolas Cage and Riko Shibata
Age gap: 31 years
The actor and his fifth wife, Riko Shibata, met in Japan and went public in January 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they didn't get to see each other in person much that year—Nicolas even proposed over FaceTime and sent her the ring via FedEx. They tied the knot in Las Vegas on February 16, 2021. Their daughter, August Francesca, was born in September 2022.
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Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union
Age gap: 10 years
Gabrielle and Dwyane are the couple that everyone loves to love. They officially got together in 2008 and now have a daughter together, Kaavia James.
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Guy Ritchie and Jacqui Ainsley
Age gap: 14 years
The director met his second wife, model Jacqui Ainsley, through mutual friends at a London hotel.
Married in 2015, the couple has three children.
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Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender
Age gap: 11 years
Alicia and Michael were cast as husband and wife in the dramatic film, The Light Between Two Oceans (guess the casting director didn't think a decade was too much, either). The two started dating after working together, wed in a secret ceremony in Spain in 2017, and welcomed their first child together in 2021.
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Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Age gap: 16 years
After 1o years in a committed relationship and two children together, Hilarie and Jeffrey got married in an intimate New York City ceremony in 2019. “There comes a point where you just don’t want to go another day by being inauthentic about it,” Hilarie told People. The couple lives on a farm in upstate New York and have been together since 2009.
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Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness
Age gap: 13 years
Hugh met Deborra-Lee on the set of an Australian television show called Correlli in 1995 and almost instantly knew he would marry her. After both admitted they had crushes on one another, they started dating and a year later, they made it official.
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Julius Tennon and Viola Davis
Age gap: 13 years
Viola wed her husband Julius in 2003, mere months after the actress prayed for love in her life. The couple has been married for nearly 20 years and share an adopted daughter, Genesis.
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Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin
Age gap: 13 years
For these True Blood costars, it really was ~eternal love~. Anna and Stephen began dating during their show’s first season in 2008 and got married two years later. They are now parents to twins Charlie and Poppy.
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Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres
Age gap: 15 years
Ellen and Portia have been together since 2004 and said “I do” in 2008 after California’s same-sex marriage ban was lifted. Ellen told People, “It’s the first time that I’ve known in every cell of my being that I’m with somebody for the rest of my life.”
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Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Age gap: 20 years
Jason and Rosie met while filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon together in 2010 and began dating the same year. The two have been engaged since 2016 and welcomed their son, Jack Oscar Statham, a year later. Their daughter, Isabella James, was born in 2022.
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Christian Slater and Brittany Lopez
Age gap: 18 years
After meeting on Florida’s Little Palm Island, Christian Slater and his wife, Brittany Lopez, tied the knot in a spontaneous ceremony at the Miami Courthouse in 2013 (while getting their marriage certificate, the couple reportedly decided they couldn’t wait make it official).
They announced the birth of their first child in August 2019.
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Dennis Quaid and Laura Savoie
Age gap: 39 years
Dennis Quaid made headlines when he proposed to then-26-year-old PhD student Laura Savoie on a press trip in Hawaii after just four months of dating. The actor told Extra: “She was actually taking a selfie of us, and I put the ring in front and said, ‘Will you marry me?’—and then she fell down.” They got married in June 2020 at a seaside resort in Santa Barbara.
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Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger
Age gap: 10 years
Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger announced their engagement in January 2019, after keeping a low profile at the beginning of their relationship. Married in June 2019, the pair has two daughters, Lyla and Eloise. Pratt divorced actress Anna Faris in 2018, and the two coparent their son Jack.
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Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo
Age gap: 10 years
Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and his Victoria's Secret model wife, Behati Prinsloo, have been married since 2014. In addition to their two daughters, Dusty Rose and Gio Grace, they're expecting a third child in 2023.
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Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz
Age gap: 17 years
Heidi may have revealed her best anti-aging secret when she explained her thoughts on her and husband Tom Kaulitz’s 17-year age gap. “You have to just live a happy life without worrying too much about what people think because worrying is only going to give you more wrinkles,” Heidi told InStyle. The pair started dating in 2018, got engaged later that year, and made it official in 2019.
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Matt Bomer and Simon Halls
Age gap: 13 years
Matt wed his publicist in 2011, and the two share three sons together.
When asked about his secret to a happy marriage, the actor told Entertainment Tonight that the couple tries to take everything “one day at a time.”
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Robin Thicke and April Love Geary
Age gap: 18 years
The singer and the model began dating just months after Robin's separation from ex-wife Paula Patton in 2015—but didn't go public until the divorce was finalized. April defended their relationship on Instagram in 2017, writing, "We're out here LIVING while most of y'all are still bothered by an age gap." Robin popped the question on Christmas Eve in 2018, and they've welcomed three children together.
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Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed
Age gap: 10 years
The Vampire Diaries and Twilight stars began dating in 2014. Maybe it was their vampire backgrounds that helped forge their bond, as the two tied the knot just a year later.
They have a daughter, Bodhi Soleil, and are expecting a second child in 2023.
40 Celebrity Couples With Big Age Differences
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George Clooney & Amal Clooney: 17 Years
In 2014, the world was shocked when famed bachelor George Clooney, then 52 years old, announced his engagement to international human rights lawyer, then 35-year-old Amal Alamuddin. The couple officially tied the knot in September of 2014 (just a year after they met) with a beautiful Venetian wedding, and welcomed two children, twins Ella and Alexander, in June of 2017.
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Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds: 11 Years
After meeting on the set of Green Lantern early in 2010, when Lively was just 22 years old and Reynolds was 33, the two started dating in 2011 and were married in September of 2012. Today, the adorable A-listers are proud parents to three daughters, after welcoming their third child in August, and appear on every red carpet affectionately arm-in-arm.
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Leonardo DiCaprio & Camila Morrone: 23 Years
It's been three years since Leonardo DiCaprio, 42, and Camila Morrone, 22, first started dating—and the 23-year age gap doesn't seem to bother the happy couple. Although they keep a low profile in public, the actress did serve as DiCaprio's date for the 2020 Academy Awards.
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Jay-Z & Beyoncé: 12 Years
The power couple first started dating back in 2001, when Jay-Z was 32 years old and Beyoncé was only 20. They later tied the knot in a super secret wedding on April 4, 2008, and gave birth to daughter Blue Ivy Carter in 2012. In 2017, Beyoncé completely broke the internet with an Instagram post announcing that the family of three was expecting twins. The couple soon welcomed babies Rumi and Sir in June of that year.
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Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas: 11 Years
After two months of dating, Chopra and Jonas became engaged in July 2018.
The couple then held a lavish wedding in December of that year, complete with two ceremonies and multiple celebrations in India. While many fans noted their age difference, the couple couldn’t care less. "The age difference is not a big deal to them whatsoever," a source close to Jonas told People. In fact, Jonas reportedly is a fan of the age gap between him and Chopra. He "loves dating older women, and if anything it makes Priyanka even more attractive to him," the source added. Jonas has "always been very mature for his age” and is “an old soul.”
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Chris Pratt & Katherine Schwarzenegger: 10 Years
Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger announced their engagement in January 2019 and tied the knot later that year in an intimate California wedding. The couple, who have a 10-year age difference between them, are now expecting their first child together.
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Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi: 15 Years
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi started dating back in 2004, and their relationship moved swiftly from there.
By 2005, the couple was sharing a home in Los Angeles and DeGeneres (who's 15 years de Rossi's senior) told People, "It's the first time that I've known in every cell of my being that I'm with somebody for the rest of my life." The two were married in 2008, after same-sex marriage was legalized in their home-state of California, and have been together ever since.
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Adam Levine & Behati Prinsloo: 10 Years
Known for his modelizing ways before finally settling down, Levine, then 34, met Prinsloo, then 24, in June 2012 after he ended his relationship with Prinsloo’s close friend and fellow VS model Anne Vyalitsyna. The couple got engaged in 2013 and later tied the knot in 2014 in Los Cabos, Mexico. Prinsloo gave birth to baby girl Dusty Rose in 2016, and gave birth to another daughter, Gio Grace, in February 2018.
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Camila Alves & Matthew McConaughey: 13 Years
Matthew McConaughey met model Camila Alves at a Los Angeles nightclub in 2006, when McConaughey was 36 and Alves was 23.
While it took some convincing to win her over, the two finally started dating and he proposed on Christmas Day in 2011. The couple then married in June 2012. They share three kids together: sons Levi and Livingston and daughter Vida.
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Jason Statham & Rosie-Huntington-Whiteley: 20 Years
Actor Jason Statham, 52, and model-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 33, started dating in 2010. The couple confirmed their engagement in January 2016, and announced that Huntington-Whiteley was expecting their first child about a year later. The model gave birth to son Jack Oscar Statham on June 24, 2017.
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Scott Disick & Sofia Richie: 15 Years
Sofia Richie was only 19 years old when she began dating then 34-year-old reality star, Scott Disick. The pair have been together since 2017, shortly after Disick's relationship with the mother of his three children, Kourtney Kardashian, ended.
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Matt Bomer & Simon Halls: 13 Years
Matt Bomer was 34 years old when he wed his longterm partner, Simon Halls, then 47, in a small ceremony in 2011. The Magic Mike actor and his husband, who works as a Hollywood publicist, have been married for nine years and are parents to sons Henry, Walker, and Kit.
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Heidi Klum & Tom Kaulitz: 16 Years
Heidi Klum was 45 years old when she and 29-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist, Tom Kaulitz, first started dating in 2018. The following year the couple tied the knot, first legally in a civil service and later with a lavish Italian wedding in June. "He's an amazing person. I couldn't be happier," Klum told USA Today.
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Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones: 25 Years
Zeta-Jones and Douglas may be 25 years apart, but they happen to share the same birthday: September 25.
The pair was introduced at the Deauville Film Festival in 1996. Douglas proposed in 1999, a month after he confirmed rumors that Zeta-Jones was pregnant. The actress gave birth to son Dylan in August of 1999, and the two were married in November 2000. They briefly separated in 2013, but soon rekindled their relationship and are still going strong.
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Eddie Murphy & Paige Butcher: 17 Years
After six years together, Eddie Murphy and Paige Butcher, a notoriously private couple, announced their engagement in 2018. The couple share two children together, a daughter Izzy and son Max.
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Dennis Quaid & Laura Savoie: 39 Years
After Dennis Quaid parted ways with his model girlfriend, Santa Auzina, who was 32 years his junior, he surprised everyone by popping the question to his new PhD student girlfriend, Laura Savoie in October 2019. The Parent Trap actor, who is 39 years older than his fiancée, told The Guardian that he is unfazed by the age difference.
"I didn’t go out looking for an age gap or someone really younger than me. I met her at a business event and then the relationship developed," he said.
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Emilie Livingston & Jeff Goldblum: 30 Years
Jeff Goldblum, 67, and former gymnast, Emilie Livingston, 37, got married in 2014. Since then, the happy couple, who boasts a 30-year age difference, has welcomed two sons together.
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Alicia Vikander & Michael Fassbender: 12 Years
Alicia Vikander, 31, and husband Michael Fassbender, 43, started dating back in 2014 after meeting on the set of The Light Between Oceans. The lovebirds kept it low-key for the cameras at the beginning of their relationship, but were outed as a newlyweds after they returned from their incognito wedding in Ibiza in 2017.
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Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor: 31 Years
Rumors started swirling in 2015 that American Horror Story star Sarah Paulson, then 41, was dating 72-year-old Holland Taylor.
Paulson later confirmed their relationship in an interview with the New York Times in 2016, stating: "What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor."
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Mary-Kate Olsen & Olivier Sarkozy: 17 Years
French banker Olivier Sarkozy, 50, and Mary-Kate Olsen, 33, got engaged in 2014 after reportedly dating for two years. The couple married in a small ceremony in 2015, where party decor included "bowls and bowls filled with cigarettes." The two currently reside in a $6.25 million townhouse in New York City.
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Felicity Huffman & William H. Macy: 12 Years
Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman and Shameless actor William H. Macy dated on-and-off for 15 years before finally marrying in 1997. H. Macy was 47, and Huffman was 35. "I was so scared of marriage that I thought I would've preferred to step in front of a bus," Huffman told Tribune News on her hesitation towards marriage.
The couple has two daughters together.
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The King & Queen of Bhutan: 10 Years
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 40, and his wife Jetsun Pema, 29, first met when she was just 7 years old at a picnic. Although Jetsun Pema is considered a commoner, her family has many connections with the royal family and it’s said that at the picnic, she innocently confessed her love for the dashing prince. Her childish confession caught the prince’s heart and he promised that when she grew up and if they were both single and in love, he would marry her. The two later married in 2011, and gave birth to a son in 2016.
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Julius Tennon & Viola Davis: 12 Years
Viola Davis, 54, has been married to Julius Tennon, 66, since 2003. The couple first met on the set of TV show City of Angels, with Davis telling People of their first encounter: “The only thing I thought was, 'He's good-looking.
He's really good-looking.'" The couple adopted a daughter, Genesis, in 2011, and Tennon has two children from previous relationships.
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Princess Charlene & Prince Albert: 20 Years
After meeting at a swimming competition in Monte Carlo in 2000, Princess Charlene of Monaco, then 22, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, then 42, dated for ten years before finally getting engaged in 2011. The couple married that same year in a lavish royal wedding, where the bride stunned in a a Giorgio Armani gown.
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Megan Fox & Brian Austin Green: 13 Years
Fox, 33, and Green, 46, met on the set of Hope & Faith in 2004 when she was only 18. They got engaged in 2006, but split three years later. However, the couple later rekindled the flame and got married in 2010. The couple has three sons together, and Fox is also a stepmom to Green's son from a previous relationship.
Recently, the couple have been facing rumors of a separation when it was reported they were living in separate homes—although the couple has not commented.
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Hugh Jackman & Deborra Lee-Furness: 13 Years
Hugh Jackman, 51, and Deborra Lee-Furness, 64, first met on the 1995 set of Australian show Correlli, which served as Jackman's first break out of drama school. The two married in 1996 and adopted two children together, Oscar and Ava. Jackman told People that despite their age difference, he's still the adult: "I’m literally the adult in the relationship. She’s just like a little kid. I’m the [one saying], ‘Babe, this is not a legal parking spot.'"
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Nikki Reed & Ian Somerhalder: 10 Years
Reed, 31, and Somerhalder, 41, began their relationship in 2014, much to the excitement of vampire fans. Reed had starred in the Twilight movie series, while Somerhalder played the main hunk on Vampire Diaries.
Somerhalder popped the question after only six months of dating, and they were married that same year. "She accepted with glee. She is madly in love," an insider told Us Weekly. The couple welcomed baby girl Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder in July of 2017.
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Harrison Ford & Calista Flockhart: 22 Years
Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart first met at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards, when Ford was 60 and Flockhart was 38. They continued to date for another seven-and-a-half years before Ford finally popped the question over Valentine’s Day weekend in 2009. They married that same year in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and have one adopted son together.
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Alec Baldwin & Hilaria Baldwin: 26 Years
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin met for the first time in February of 2011 when Hilaria was working as a yoga instructor. The couple moved quickly into a stable relationship as Hilaria told Beach magazine in a 2013 interview: “Five months into our relationship, we got an apartment together; then we started talking about getting married; then he proposed; then we got married; now we have a kid,” she explained.
“So it all went quite fast!” The couple now shares four children together and are expecting their fifth child in September 2020.
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David Foster & Katharine McPhee: 34 Years
The duo first met in 2006 when Foster mentored McPhee and other contestants on season 5 of American Idol. While they didn't immediately get together, dating rumors started swirling in 2017 after Foster's divorce was finalized with Yolanda Hadid. The couple later confirmed their engagement in 2018. "It doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but it does to us," McPhee said of her relationship with Foster in an interview with People.
Age difference between a man and a woman: how it affects relationships
The effect of age difference on relationships: Pixabay Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron, Lisa Bonet and Jason Momoa, Donald and Melania Trump, Alec and Hilaria Baldwin are prime examples of happy unions in which lovers have a solid age difference.
Can lovers of different ages live a long happy life together or is their relationship doomed?
Age difference: how it affects relationships
Even a very significant difference in years in a relationship has ceased to shock the world. However, not all couples with a big age difference live happily "until death do us part ...", many lovers break up. How does age difference affect relationships?
Scientific research proves that age difference in a relationship matters to both partners. Playboy magazine writes that the chances of staying together decrease for lovers in proportion to the increase in the number of years that separate them. Here is the probability of a break:
- Difference up to 1 year - 3%.
- Difference up to 5 years - 18%.
- The difference from 10 to 19 years is 39%.
- Difference of 20 years or more - 95%.
Even more interesting studies were carried out by Sven Drefal, Doctor of Demography and Philosophy.
The study of couples of different ages led the scientist to the conclusion that the age difference between a man and a woman affects the life expectancy of partners. Drefal found out that:
- in marriages of different ages, when the wife is older than the husband, life expectancy decreases for both partners;
- if the husband is older in a couple, a large difference in the age of the spouses contributes to an increase in the life expectancy of a man and a decrease in a woman.
In addition, the well-being of relationships is influenced by psycho-emotional factors, such as public opinion, the presence of common and illegitimate children, social status.
How does the age difference affect relationships: PixabayIs there an optimal age difference between spouses that guarantees a lasting union? Today there are several opinions.
Divide the age of the older partner by 2 and add 7
The Economist columnist Sumaya Keynes notes that the existing formula for calculating the ideal age gap between spouses is only good for theory.
Practical research has shown that on dating sites, women are mostly looking for a man of about their age. At the same time, men, regardless of their own age, are looking for girls around the age of 20 to meet.
Difference of 2‒5 years
The Economics and Life magazine tells that in a marriage where the age of the spouses practically does not differ, over time, the husband and wife become similar not only in habits, behavior, perception of the world, but also externally. It is easier for lovers to find mutual understanding, solve life problems, build a joint life.
Same-age partners
Scholars Andrew Francis-Tan and Hugo M. Mialon argue that peer marriages are the strongest. They found that unions in which the difference between the spouses of five years, break up 18% more often than unions of the same age partners.
Today, even in science, there is no exact formula for determining the ideal age difference in a couple. A well-known psychologist in the field of relationships, Anna Iotko, believes that only the person himself can create barriers to harmonious relationships.
Age difference: the man is significantly older
What are relationships with a big age difference built on and can spouses be happy if the partner is 10, 15, 20 or more years older?
Associate Professor, Candidate of Psychological Sciences Irina Khokh in her publication “The Specifics of Psychological Dissatisfaction in an Unequal Marriage” writes that respondents consider sexual harmony, which is influenced by the emotional maturity of partners, to be one of the main conditions for marital happiness in relationships of different ages.
But if we consider both the psychological and physiological aspects, then relationships with a difference in age have many pitfalls.
10 years difference
If spouses are 10 years apart, there is no difference in age when he is 30 and his partner is 20 years old. But as the partners get older and the wife reaches the age of 45-50, the sexual needs of one and the possibilities of the other may not match.
An example of a happy marriage with such a difference in age (11 years) is the union of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
15 years difference
When a man is 15 years older than his beloved, a woman seeks stability, an opportunity to gain experience that her peers cannot give. G. Zalevsky in the article “Marriages of different ages: psychological problems” writes that for a man, an alliance with a young partner is an opportunity to introduce looseness into intimate life, a way to increase self-esteem, and rejuvenate.
An example of a happy couple is George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin (17 years difference).
Difference of 20 or more years
Youth, naivety and freshness of the beloved attract a mature man.
Girls find wisdom, experience, protection, stability, including material ones, in a mature lover.
The weak side of such marriages can be called various goals, life views, interests. If partners are connected by common interests or business, the marriage becomes stronger and happier.
For example, Bruce Willis is happily married to Emmy Heming, who is 23 years his junior.
It is wrong to think that over time spouses will become unhappy. Sociologists S. Klimova and M. Elyutina in the article “Unequal marriage: the social foundations of the combination of ages” indicate that the fact of the partner’s youth makes the older spouse take care of himself, keep his body in good shape at any age.
Age difference: the woman is much older
Marriage in which the woman is older than the man is not uncommon today. G. Zalevsky writes that in such a union, the sexual and emotional upsurge lasts about 3-5 years.
When the second phase of a marriage hits, differences in lifestyle, interests, and intimate life can lead to problems and provoke divorce.
The union will be happy when partners love each other and realize that they really need this relationship. Then the desire to bring happiness, comfort, peace reigns between the spouses, and the difference in age, even very significant, is not felt by the spouses.
Mostly such marriages are entered into by self-sufficient, successful and financially independent women who have realized their potential. A young partner attracts a mature woman sexually more than a man of her age. Often women:
- provide financial assistance to young husbands;
- help realize dreams and aspirations;
- promote career advancement;
- suggest how to solve difficult situations.
In such a marriage, a man is in a state of psychological comfort, develops faster, becomes self-confident. A striking example is Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron.
In such families, most often the woman plays the role of the head of the family. If the state of affairs suits both partners, then the couple is able to live a happy and harmonious life.
But it happens that the role of a student, which suited a man before, begins to weigh him down. He grows up and understands that he wants to become the head of the family. Then conflicts and misunderstandings begin in the family. A woman is shocked and does not always agree to transfer the dominant role, become submissive and give the reins of power into the hands of a man.
In such a situation, G. Zalevsky advises:
- give the man more freedom;
- stop patronizing him;
- let your partner make their own choices and decisions;
- rate his willingness to take responsibility.
In terms of sexual relations, marriages with a difference in age develop very harmoniously.
The wife has experience and strives for sex, and the man has a lot of strength and desire to make any of her dreams come true.
In such marriages, a woman subconsciously feels the fear of aging and loss of external attractiveness. A well-known psychologist in the field of relations M. Labkovsky writes that a woman's sexuality does not depend on age, size, beauty or body shape, but comes from within.
When she likes herself, feels attractive, she becomes sexy for men, age has absolutely nothing to do with it. Many happy couples have proven this, including the Duchess of Alba and her husband Alfonso Diez, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet.
You can find a huge number of advantages and disadvantages of a union of different ages, but they are unlikely to matter for lovers. Practice proves that such couples can find happiness and spend their lives together, because the number in the passport does not matter if the partners have found love.
Original article: https://www.nur.kz/family/relationship/1382887-raznitsa-v-vozraste-mezhdu-muzhchinoy-i-zhenshchinoy-kak-ona-vliyayet-na-otnosheniya/
Psychologist told how the age difference affects relationships
Family psychologist Alena Tretyakova explained whether the numbers in the passport play an important role in relationships.
Arina Kostanyan
Tags:
Evergreen
Relationship
Psychology
Relationship psychology
ALENA TRETYAKOVA
Family psychologist
Relationships between partners with age difference have always existed. But if earlier these were, as a rule, forced marriages, when girls were forced to marry men, now such unions are concluded by mutual consent.
In addition, there are more and more couples where the woman is much older than her chosen one. And although modern society is ready to accept this as the norm, partners still face certain difficulties in relationships.
Speaking of age, we most often mean the biological age of a person (written in the passport - ed. note) and rarely take into account the psychological one. So, for example, until the age of 20-23, girls are ahead of boys in development, so it’s understandable that they feel more comfortable next to a boyfriend 3-5 years older than themselves. By the way, after this age, the psychological difference levels off.
There is a widespread opinion that the ideal age difference for a serious relationship is when a man is 8 years older than his chosen one. However, if we analyze the statistics of divorces, the picture is somewhat different.
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The strongest marriages are those where the difference between partners is only 1-2 years.
The number of breakups begins to increase markedly from a difference of 5 years.
And this dynamics is only increasing - the older one of the partners, the higher the divorce rate. Those couples in which the man is 20 years or more older than the woman break up in more than half of the cases. To understand why marriages with a difference in age are so vulnerable, it is important to understand how relationships between partners develop in them.
At the beginning of a relationship, a mature man seems more attractive to a girl than her peers. Usually, an adult partner has already resolved the main material issues, which means that he can not only beautifully look after his beloved, but also look like a reliable support for the future family. On the one hand, this is a really serious advantage, and on the other hand, it can also become the cause of possible problems. It is here that the very 8 years emerge, within which the chosen ones still remain people of the same generation.
If the difference is greater, then over time, it becomes more difficult for lovers to find common topics for conversation. After all, partners have different memories from childhood, different “generational” worldviews, different needs, so their social circles are also difficult to combine. As a result, this leads to the fact that women are forced to give up not only their own interests, but also friends. Such a marriage will be based on material goods and exactly as long as they outweigh the difficulties in the relationship.
The second reason why women want to connect their lives with a man older than themselves is that they are looking for a substitute for the role of father. And this does not always happen because the girl's parent was bad, and she did not receive something in her childhood. The reason may also be too strong attachment to the father, the absence of which is very felt. The main difficulty in such a relationship is the constant dissatisfaction of a man, his groundless jealousy and criticism.
