15+ Couples With a Big Age Gap Honestly Share Their Relationship Stories

Publish date: 2024-08-07

In the past, experts advised dividing your age by two and adding seven to get the minimum acceptable age of a partner. Now, they say that this formula is outdated. Each individual couple is unique, so that the age difference can vary. We found stories of people with firsthand experience of relationships where one partner is significantly older than the other.

“I am 31 and I love my 66-year-old man.”

We started dating when I was 29, and he was 42. Been together for 9 years, married for 5, one kid. Honestly, it’s not really about the numbers but about having compatible levels of utter immaturity (we suit each other well in that regard). However, one thing that’s been coming up lately is he’s planning for a hopefully early retirement at 57, and even if I end up being able to retire early as well, 19 years is a lot further away than 6... © withbellson / Reddit
I am 23 and my boyfriend is 31. We feel the difference when I mention a lot of Spongebob quotes, and he doesn’t understand where I’m getting these weird sayings from. © indigohibiscus / Reddit
I’m 21, he’s 34. I usually forget about the age difference, but sometimes when I want to stay up till 3 a.m. talking and he says, “I’m not your age anymore, I can’t function on 4 hours of sleep the next day”, I remember the 13-year age gap. © fishfingersncustard7 / Reddit
I (27y.o.) and my fiancee (41) are getting ready to tie the knot. She expressed some doubt as to whether or not we’d be able to conceive and asked me if I wanted to back out of our engagement. I told her spending my life with her was worth the risk. © NateHasReddit / Reddit

“He is 35, and I am almost 53. We are happy.”

My parents had a 28-year age gap, and one of my mom’s favorite stories to tell is how he brought her to the movies for their first date and asked for a senior discount when buying tickets. She was not aware of the age difference until then. © victatiana / Reddit
My parents are 12 years apart. My mother is the older one. They’ve been together for about 30 years. Never really saw an age difference. She loves going to dances, and so does my father. She is more level-headed and stern, while he is happy-go-lucky and a jokester. © sel_darling / Reddit
There was a little over 25-year age gap between my mum and dad. My mum had me when she was 30, and my dad was in his mid-50s. My dad always looked after himself and kept himself fit, so my mum always said she never really felt the age difference in the early years, but he started showing signs of Parkinson’s disease when I was about 5, and I can only really remember him needing my mum to care for him increasingly until it claimed his life when he was 75. My mum has said to me in recent years when discussing it, that she loved my dad dearly, but she recognizes that the age difference cost them a lot since she spent more years in the role of a caretaker than she did as a partner. That said, with a little bad luck, this could happen at any age, and, of course, we loved him and wouldn’t give up that time with him. © HexonBogon / Reddit
One of my exes was 25 years older than me, and another one was 26 years older. I was a student, he was retired. The fact that they could easily become grandfathers at any moment horrified me. I’m proudly childfree, so boyfriends with adult children who were out of the house seemed fine, but I really didn’t want to become some sort of step-grandma at 25. © emchocolat / Reddit

“I am 30, he is 47. Enjoying our vacation”

I’m 47. My last girlfriend was 19. We faced endless judgment about our age difference. Typically, I was seen as a near predator, she was perceived as either a gold digger or a victim. Her family couldn’t accept it, we broke up despite loving each other. My new girlfriend is 61. Everyone sees it as perfectly fine, good for her. I’m seen as a more mature man for dating her. Funny how the perspectives shift. © sutree1 / Reddit
There is a married couple among my friends. She looks like she is in her 30s, and he is around 50. But when you ask them how big their age difference is, they get mixed up and say something like, “205... Oh, 15.” Or if someone brings up a historical figure in the conversation, one of them quietly says to the other, “I knew him, remember?” And they begin to talk softly to each other. I love them! © Overheard / Ideer
My father-in-law is 10 years older than my mother-in-law. It’s a huge gap now he is 83 and she is 73. She’s his carer more than anything now, even though he has well-managed health issues, so he isn’t sick as such, but I see how she has to be aware of the temperature somewhere as he gets so cold now or if he’s getting tired, they have to leave wherever they are. He’s an old man now, but she is not. © Unknown author / Reddit
I’m with my soulmate, who’s 16 years older. Literally, the only time I feel the age gap is when we’re talking about our plans for kids (I don’t want him to feel like he had kids too late, but on the same token, I don’t want to feel like I’m having kids too early). Otherwise, everything is perfect. © Kyomei-ju / Reddit

“Married my soulmate. 27 and 59”

My wife and I have an 18-year age gap. Once, our 19-year-old daughter invited her boyfriend to come over for dinner. He is 13 years older than her. The evening was good, but after it, my wife was furious about the age of our future son-in-law. I reminded her that she chose a husband older than her and that we were happy. My wife glared at me and said, “That’s why I don’t want her to go through the same things I did.” That hurt me a lot... © Overheard / Ideer
My husband and I have a 17-year age difference. I love him but recommend that our kids avoid such a big difference. © Yadviga Günther
I am 34 years old, and my man is 25. At first, I felt awkward about the age gap. I was worried because I read various articles on psychology online that said that when a man is much younger, he is looking for a mother in a relationship and so on. But he would fuss if I didn’t wear a hat, remind me to take lunch to work, and buy me sweets, ice cream, or flowers every night. And yesterday he misplaced his phone and asked me to call him. As a result, I found the phone first and was shocked that he had saved me in his contacts as ... baby. © Overheard / Ideer

“I am 29, she is 41. This is love.”

I am in my second marriage now. My first husband was 5 years older than me, and my current husband is 8 years younger than me. The other day, his sister told me a story from their teenage years. She and her brother saw me in a shop with my first husband. My current husband, who was still in school, whispered to his sister, looking at us, “Look, what a lovely girl, and with such a strange man. I would marry her!” And now they recalled this story. Fate. © Overheard / Ideer
I was on a dating site. I am a woman in my 40s. I liked a man who was 42 years old. So we started chatting. He asked for a full-size photo of me, and I sent him a couple of pics saying, “This is me 10 years ago, and 5 pounds lighter than I am now. And this is me 20 years ago and 10 pounds lighter than I am now.” And then this adorable guy sent me his picture as a baby with a toy in his hands and said, “Look how hot I was 20 years ago.” He was just flirting with me. He said, “Don’t worry about your age. It’s okay.” I liked his sense of humor. Let’s see how it goes. © WWW.LENINGRAD / Pikabu

We cannot help but recall the clichéd phrase “Love knows no age” here. It is often quoted by celebrities who choose partners much older or younger than themselves. And we noticed that some famous beauties date only younger men — they are definitely free from any prejudices.