Though people might joke about Leonardo DiCaprio's tendency to date women who are younger than 25, and might have questions about Bill Belichick's alleged 23-year-old girlfriend, famous men date much younger women so often that no one really bats an eye. Women dating much younger men, on the other hand, is a less common phenomenon — and some might say it comes with more of a stigma. For one thing, some people seem to think that women aren't really allowed to age (Pamela Anderson looks beautiful at age 57 but her natural look has people saying that she looks "so old.")
These types of comments seem to suggest that the only thing worse than a woman who looks her age is one who is OK with it. In 2018, Madonna spoke to The Cut about how ageism has led to people judging her and the people she tends to date.
"What I am going through now is ageism, with people putting me down or giving me a hard time because I date younger men or do things that are considered to be only the domain of younger women," she said at the time. "I mean, who made those rules? Who says?"
Madonna isn't the only woman challenging these "rules" — several other famous women are also partnered up with or dating much younger men. Here's what they have to say about it:
1. Cher
Cher's boyfriend, Alexander Edwards, is 40 years younger than she is. While many people find the significant age gap strange, at age 78, Cher has her reasons: “Men my age or older, well, now they’re all dead," she said on The Jennifer Hudson Show in May 2024.
In 2022, while on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Cher admitted that "on paper, it's kind of ridiculous."
"But in real life, we get along great. He's fabulous," she said at the time.
2. Kris Jenner
Kris Jenner's boyfriend, Corey Gamble, is 25 years younger than she is. The couple met at a mutual friend's birthday party in 2014 and started dating after that, meaning they've been together for about 10 years now.
Kris, 68, admitted that she was kind of weirded out by the age gap at first, but now she understands that, as they say, age truly is just a number.
On an episode of The Kardashians in 2024, Kris reflected on the age gap in her relationship.
"I used to say to Corey all the time when I first started dating him, like, why do you want to date somebody older than you?" she said on the show. "I didn't get the age gap, and then he taught me that age is just a number. A [expletive] big number, but it's a number."
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3. Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum is 16 years older than her husband, but she doesn't really think about that unless other people bring it up, she previously revealed to InStyle. Heidi, 51, has been married to Tom Kaulitz, 34, since 2019. She's very aware that some people judge her for that age gap, but she thinks a lot of people who make comments about it are doing so out of spite.
"I think it’s often just spitefulness," she previously told Glamour Germany. "Perhaps many people also think I’ve had too much luck in life. I have a great job, I get to travel the world, I can buy expensive things. And now I’ve also got myself such a great man."
At the same time, she's aware that the age gap might become a problem at some point, but right now, it isn't and she's not worried about it.
"Maybe it will be a problem for me in 10 years’ time, maybe he won’t like it then," she told the outlet. "In 20 years, I’ll be 70. I usually plan for the future — but with my husband, I live in the here and now."
4. Megan Mullally
Actress Megan Mullally's relationship with a younger man — actor Nick Offerman — was rather unintentional. In a 2017 interview with GQ, she revealed that when she met her now-husband, she was happy to finally find a man around her age. Then she found out he wasn't.
Megan is 11 years older than Nick but she had no idea he was so young when they first met.
"When we met, I was 41, and I’d always had younger guys pursue me, and I was really sick of it," Megan told GQ. "And so I met Nick and I thought, Oh, great, 'cause this guy’s like 38! Turns out he was 29."
She added that Nick "looked old" and "was mature." "So when I found out he was 29, I said these two words: YOU MOTHERF—ER. And I almost ran my car off the road."
They've been married since 2003.
5. Sam Taylor-Johnson
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson was 42 years old when she met her husband, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He was 18. She was directing Nowhere Boy, and Aaron was an actor who auditioned for, and ultimately got, the lead role. Many people have questioned the 23-year age gap and the circumstances under which they met. But Sam, 57, wonders when people will stop asking about the age gap considering she and Aaron, 34, have been married since 2012. "We're a bit of an anomaly, but it’s that thing: After 14 years, you just think, surely by now, it doesn’t really matter?" she said during an interview with The Guardian.
In an interview with Time magazine, Sam said, "When people fall in love, they fall in love."
She tries not to worry about people's judgment, she explained during the same interview.
"Everyone at the beginning said, 'It's a terrible idea, it's not gonna work,' and then you're like 15 years down the road and have raised four kids and you're like, 'Really?'"
6. Joan Collins
Actress Joan Collins, 91, is another woman who doesn't really care what people think about the age gap between her and her husband, Percy Gibson, 59. The couple tied the knot in 2002, and they were friends first, Joan explained in an interview with Fox News Digital. "We were friends first, above anything else," she said. In her memoir, Behind the Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends, she wrote about how the age difference isn't a significant factor in their relationship because she has "great vitality and enthusiasm for life and all it has to offer."
7. Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall, 67, is 14 years older than her boyfriend, Russell Thomas, but that doesn't seem to be an issue in their relationship. In 2023, on the Modern Love podcast, the Sex and the City star described dating Russell as "easy” and "very comfortable."
"He's a firecracker. He's got a wicked sense of humor, and he's easy on the eyes!" she said at the time. In 2018, she told Glamour that the way they first met and started dating was "very, very modern."
"He followed me and I followed him on Twitter, he direct messaged me," she said at the time, adding that "it's just been very easy."
8. Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton's longtime partner is 18 years younger than she is. The 63-year-old British actress hasn't spoken about the age gap publicly and keeps her private life private, but she and painter Sandro Kopp reportedly met on the set of The Chronicles of Narnia in 2004.
In a 2014 interview with the Daily Mail, she said she has a good relationship with both the father of her children, John Byrne, and her current partner.
"We're all really good friends. It's a very happy situation. Life doesn't have to be complicated," she said at the time.
