Age ain’t nothin’ but a number. They say that love is blind, and perhaps that also applies to grey hair, wrinkles, and saggy skin! It’s pretty common in Hollywood to see hot, young, celebrity ladies pair up with older, greyer, and more established guys. (This is probably because most of Hollywood is made up of hot, young women and old, powerful men. But I digress.) However, there are still definitely some cougars on the prowl, like Jennifer Lopez, who's hooked up with the 18-years-younger Casper Smart and is now linked to rapper Drake, or Madonna, who regularly makes boy toys of backup dancers and models just a few years older than her own daughter.
While a lot of these relationships have failed to stand the test of time, there are a few that are still going strong! Some have led to marriage and children and continue to kick relationship a$$ years after everyone doubted them. Others, of course, didn’t turn out so well and ended in divorce or breakups – but still with a pretty interesting story to share. Without further ado, these are 15 celebrities who looked beyond the birth date and dated people the same age as their parents!
15 Drake & Jennifer Lopez (17 year difference)
The newest relationship on our list, Drake and J.Lo are a match made in music heaven that have only been dating for a couple of weeks. What first started as whispers and rumours thanks to a loved-up looking Instagram pic seems to have turned into the real deal, with Jennifer recently staying in Vegas for one of Drake’s shows while wearing a gold necklace often spotted on the Canadian rapper.
J.Lo’s got a bit of a thing for younger guys though, as she just split with backup dancer Casper Smart, who was 18 years her junior. However, a lot of people still have raised eyebrows about this genetically-blessed couple, with most people saying that their antics are just a ploy for media attention as they make music together. (Because publicity relationships have worked out so well in the past, right?) Another person who is apparently not a fan of Drake’s new lady love? Rihanna, the girl the Champagne Papi hadn’t been able to keep his hands or eyes off of before.
14 Stacy Keibler & George Clooney (18 year difference)
While George Clooney has had his fair share of lovely ladies before settling down with his current wife, human rights lawyer and international bada$$ Amal Alamuddin, perhaps the strangest pairing of his was with former WWE superstar, Stacy Keibler. The two met at an Oscars party in 2006 and began dating five years later, and while Stacy was an absolute knockout on George’s arm to many awards shows and Hollywood events, she also didn’t seem totally at ease with her A-list beau's bevy of famous friends.
Despite their 18-year age difference, Stacy and George stuck it out for two years before calling it quits in 2013. As you now know, he later took up with Amal, who is 17 years younger than Gorgeous George, although we imagine that what she lacks in years she makes up for in worldly experience and total brilliance (she is Oxford-educated, after all). As for Stacy, she seems happy to let bygones be bygones, and is now married with a little daughter, Ava.
13 Evan Rachel Wood & Marilyn Manson (18 year difference)
Another head-scratcher for a lot of people, Westworld beauty Evan Rachel Wood was once involved with – and engaged to – shock rocker Marilyn Manson, who was 18 years her senior. The odd relationship started when Evan was just 18 and met Marilyn at a Hollywood club, while he was still married to burlesque performer Dita Von Teese. Although Evan didn’t talk much about their relationship at the time, she has since opened up about it, years after the fact.
“I met somebody that promised freedom and expression and no judgments. And I was craving danger and excitement,” she said in an interview with Rolling Stone. She says that she was demonized by the public and Manson’s fans for causing a breakup between him and Von Teese, and that she was still a teenager trying to figure things out. She’s admitted that she understands why people struggled with them being together, but that she has no regrets and wouldn’t trade any of it.
12 Amber Tamblyn & David Cross (19 year difference)
Despite their 19-year age difference, it’s weirdly not all that shocking to see that actress Amber Tamblyn and comedian David Cross (best known for his role in Arrested Development) have been together for four years of marriage, eight years total – and are now expecting a baby girl! Maybe it’s because Amber has always been outspoken and seemed older than her years, and David has always looked like a chill guy and not some creep. They both seem to share a similar sense of silly humour and simply enjoy each other’s company, which just doesn’t have an age!
Plus, the way they met was weird and wonderful: On a connecting flight, Amber noticed David because she was a fan of his, and David noticed Amber because, duh, she’s gorgeous. To better have a conversation, they switched seats and began flipping through the SkyMall catalogue and spent the rest of the flight making fun of it. Ah, love.
11 Rosie Huntington-Whitely & Jason Statham (20 year difference)
Really, you’re getting the most macho, masculine guy (he’s in The Transporter movies and other action flick fare) and the most feminine of ladies (she’s a Victoria’s Secret Angel) in this couple, so their 20-year age difference pales in comparison to that killer gene pool. Dating since 2010, and engaged since January 2016, the couple have kept things pretty quiet, which is why there wasn’t quite so much shock surrounding them when they came out as couple (or since).
Rosie has said that Jason is truly the best boyfriend (now fiancé) she’s ever had, and that they are best friends at their core. While one would think that Rosie would be getting all the attention when the couple goes out (the girl is flawless, I tell you!), it turns out that Jason is usually the one to be shouted down for autographs and photos. Well, with a pair that popular, it’s good to see that they go out of their way to keep private time just that – private.
10 Calista Flockhart & Harrison Ford (22 year difference)
People have been surprised that this couple have made it this far, considering the 22-year age difference between Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford. The pair met in 2002 and married after eight years together, raising Calista’s adopted son, Liam (Harrison also has four other children).
Maybe it’s the fact that the pair are notoriously press-shy that keeps them so solid, but when they first got together, media outlets pounced on the odd pair, as he was a beloved movie star of major Hollywood franchises (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and she was a small-screen star most famous for her pin-thin portrayal of the titular character on Ally McBeal. But, fame is not what keeps a relationship strong, and the two have kept things together, even after a scary plane crash Harrison endured while he was flying in 2013. Instead of playing a lawyer or actress, Calista instead rushed to his side and played nurse!
9 Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Sam Taylor-Johnson (23 year difference)
While women who date older men rarely get an eyebrow raised in their direction, the same cannot be said for men who date older women. While Hollywood is all about youth and beauty, it is almost unheard of for a man to choose to date someone older than him, especially when the age difference is significant, like the 23 years that separate Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his wife, Sam.
The pair met when Aaron was 19 and Sam was directing him back in 2009’s Nowhere Boy, and Aaron says he fell in love with her that first day. Now, married and with two daughters (Sam also has two from her first marriage), Aaron says he couldn’t be happier, and that their age difference has never bothered him because he has always felt older than his years and that he and Sam just gelled together perfectly. And, when it comes to naysayers who pooh-pooh their relationship, the couple has only two words: “F**k off!”
8 Amber Heard & Johnny Depp (23 year difference)
It was a relationship that seemed strange from the start, and unfortunately ended pretty terribly, with domestic abuse accusations thrown around and a very messy year for both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. The two met while filming The Rum Diary in 2009, in which Johnny played a man obsessed with Amber’s character, and began dating in 2012, after he ended his long relationship with Vanessa Paradis, a French model and mother of his two children. They got engaged in 2014, married in 2015, separated in May 2016, and divorced August 2016.
While their 23-year age difference was odd, it wasn’t nearly as much of a talking point as the fact that Johnny had married someone – after more than a decade of being happily unmarried to his last partner – and then the domestic abuse allegations and legal drama that followed. While the couple eventually settled for a hefty $7 million, Amber donated the amount in its entirety to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
7 Adrianne Curry & Christopher Knight (23 year difference)
How’s this for a weird meeting? Former America’s Next Top Model winner Adrianne Curry met ex-Brady Bunch son, Christopher Knight, while filming the VH1 reality show, The Surreal Life, which put a variety of has-been celebrities into a weirdly-decorated house to see how they handled it. (Included in that list of ex-A-listers was Verne Troyer, aka Mini Me, Flavor Flav, and Vanilla Ice.)
Although 23 years separated the couple, they did get married and even had a TV show to document their life together, called My Fair Brady, because that was a thing people did in the late ‘00s. They went on record numerous times saying that their relationship was a lot of work, and perhaps part of that was due to their wide age discrepancy. The odd couple separated after 5 years of marriage, but since Christopher already had a pretty spotty track record relationship-wise (Adrianne was the third Mrs. Knight and she joked that she wouldn’t be the last), it’s not a surprise that this couple ended up going their separate ways.
6 Padma Lakshmi & Salman Rushdie (23 year difference)
Speaking of strange, doesn’t it look pretty odd to see the gorgeous host of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi, cuddled up to the less-lovely award-winning author, Salman Rushdie? Perhaps it’s the public interest in their odd coupling that was part of the reason behind Padma’s decision to release an autobiography in early 2016, which in part detailed her relationship with the writer.
The two met in 1999 when Padma was only 28 and Salman was 51 and married to his third wife. They married in 2004 and divorced in 2007. In her autobiography, Padma talks about how Salman was insecure and jealous, and regularly abandoned her in times of need (like during a particularly brutal surgery she underwent for endometriosis) for work. Later, Salman stated about marriage, “Girls like it… Girls want a wedding, they don’t want a marriage. If only you could have weddings without marriages.” Hm, sounds like sour grapes to us!
5 Catherine Zeta-Jones & Michael Douglas (25 year difference)
Way back in the ‘90s when Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas started dating, most people thought it wouldn’t last, partly due to the fact that she was one of the most beautiful actresses on the Hollywood scene and because of the 25-year age difference between the couple.
How they’ve proven them wrong!
The couple have been together for a solid 15 years, including a minor break in 2013 for a few months, due to them both battling personal demons (Michael had throat cancer, Catherine was diagnosed as bipolar). Part of the reason they’ve been able to stick it out is because of, according to Michael, a mutual sense of humour and the fact that his wife “has a wonderful warm Welsh heart, a great work ethic, and is in the same occupation as me.” The long-term couple (15 years is basically forever in Hollywood) also have two kids, teenagers Dylan and Carys, so despite what was said in the beginning, we wish them all the best!
4 Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart (25 year difference)
We’re reaching way back for this May-December romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart (also known as Bogie and Bacall), where Bacall was 19 when she met the 44-year-old Bogie on the set of To Have and Have Not. Despite the 25 years between the pair (and the fact that Bogie was in his third marriage when he first took up with her), they got married in 1945, when Bacall was 20, and invited all of Hollywood to join them.
Unlike many other romances on this list, this union has been a major part of Hollywood history and a memorable love story, especially since they remained together for 12 years, until Bogie’s death from esophageal cancer. However, it wasn’t always so green-lit. The director of the film they met on, Howard Hawks, discouraged the two, saying Bogie was being unprofessional and that Bacall was foolish and Bogie was toying with her affections. Ah, but the heart wants what it wants!
3 Céline Dion & René Angélil (26 year difference)
As he was her manager and she was 12 years old and just starting out her singing career when they first met, Céline Dion and René Angélil’s relationship was first met with a lot of skepticism and a bit of “ew”. Of course, while nothing happened at that young an age, it was when Céline was only a teenager that romance came into the picture, although their relationship began built on a basis of respect, truth, and love.
Unfortunately, just this past year, Céline lost her husband to throat cancer after 21 years together (they married in 1994 when Céline was 26; René was 52), and three children: son René-Charles and twins Nelson and Eddy. As the woman who makes most people sob over her heartfelt renditions of powerful lyrics, it was heartbreaking to see Céline deal with the interviews after his death, but as she knows – perhaps better than anyone – the heart will go on.
2 Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor (32 year difference)
It was a case of “are they or aren’t they” for a while as actress Sarah Paulson coyly avoided directly mentioning her relationship with actress Holland Taylor until finally coming clean in March 2016. While the two had met over a decade ago, Sarah was in a relationship with another woman (this time only 18 years her senior). The two are absolutely adorable, and even though Holland is 73, she’s still majorly Twitter-savvy, taking to the social media site to regularly praise her girlfriend for her achievements and wardrobe choices, including her most recent Golden Globes win with the words, “A shimmering, spectacular, singular sensation…!!!”
You would think that a same-sex relationship with such a surprisingly large age difference would earn more than a few judgmental words, but rather than court controversy, this stylish duo earn praise for their refreshingly honest and genuine affection for one another, and since age ain’t nothin’ but a number…
1 Courtney Stodden & Doug Hutchison (34 year difference)
The last couple on our list – who are head-scratchingly still together (at least for now) – are probably the most controversial on this list, and that’s in no small part due to the massive 34-year age difference. Now just 22, Courtney met and married Doug Hutchison, now 56, when she was just 16! With the permission of her mother, the two got hitched, appeared on VH1’s Couples Therapy, split in 2013, reconciled in 2014, revealed Courtney was pregnant, miscarried, and only just now has it been released that the couple are possibly separating. Adding another dose of weirdness to this is accusations that Courtney’s mom, Krista, was carrying on an emotional affair with Doug. (Well, they are closer in age than Courtney and Doug!)
Phewf, talk about messy! While easily the couple on this list with the biggest “ick” factor, it’s a bit of a stretch to even call this pair “celebrities”, but since their age difference is one of the biggest in Hollywood, we had to include this truly odd couple!
