Choosing a romantic partner is a highly personal decision and society is judgmental. The new movie The Idea of You tells the story of a woman in her 40s, played by Anne Hathaway, starting a relationship with a man in his 20s. Some people are outraged by this. On March 7, 2024 the ladies of The View took on this hot topic.
Joy Behar personally thinks it's smart for women to date slightly younger men. Her husband, Steve Janowitz, is younger than she is. She worries about too big of an age gap though. Whoopi Goldberg thinks age is just a number — as long as it's legal.
Joy is 81 years old. “There is this notion in the public that women should stay within their own age bracket,” she stated. “But when you think about it, women basically live six years longer than men. So if you go with a guy who’s younger than you, you probably die at the same time. So that’s good. Plus, men reach their sexual peak much younger than women do. So you need an older woman. You want a younger guy.”
This works for Joy. “My husband is seven years younger than me,” she explained. “He drives at night, he does the heavy lifting. He’s sharp as a tack. If I get old, depressed and decrepit, which I am already almost, he’ll wheel me around instead of I’m wheeling him around.”
She later mused that too big of an age gap could lead to issues. She added: “When you’re 20 and 40 is good. And even 40 and 60. But now 60 and 80 starts to get a little hairy. And 70 and 90? Problematic.”
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Whoopi Goldberg, 68, does not look at potential partners’ ages. “I’ve gone up and down. I go from here to here,” she explained. “Your age is not what’s going to get me in your arms. It’s not your age that I’m concerned about, unless you’re under 18, in which case, I can’t.”
She doesn’t agree with Joy about a big age gap being problematic. “I’ll just say this to you: One of the last relationships I had, he was 40 years older than me,” she confessed.
