‘It’s just other people that have the problem’: How an 18yo fell for a 40yo man
They say age is just a number – but the 21-year age gap for this couple also gets a lot of trolling, debate and people asking if he’s her dad or grandpa.
Lifestyle
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When Natasha Maree posts photos and videos of her partner of six years online, strangers ask if he’s her grandpa or father and make harsh comments about their obvious 21-year age gap.
“We get a lot of attention,” says the 25-year-old, who lives in Adelaide with Harley Johnstone, 46.
“We’ve had hundreds of people, because we work online, tell us over the years ‘he’s too old, she’s too young, he’s a creep, she has no life experience’.”
The fitness influencers flaunt their spring-autumn relationship on their YouTube platforms, where they have a combined 380,000 followers.
“Every time I post a photo with Harley, everyone says ‘oh, look, you with your grandpa, you with your dad, your boyfriend looks older than your dad’.
“It’s mostly other people that have the problem with our relationship and age gap. It doesn’t affect us because we are happy and we have thick skins.”
Ms Maree’s age gap pales in comparison to the nearly 50-year difference between 80-year-old former prime minister Paul Keating and his new love, a 30-something Polish waitress younger than his three daughters.
He’s not the first famous face to date someone young enough to be his child.
Academy Award-winner Michael Douglas, 79, has been married for 23 years to fellow actor Catherine Zeta Jones, who is 25 years his junior. Nicolas Cage has a 31-year age gap with his fifth wife Riko Shibata and Jeff Goldblum is 30 years older than his third wife, while Leonardo DiCaprio, 49, has had a string of young girlfriends – his latest being 25-year-old Italian supermodel Vittoria Ceretti.
Ms Maree was an 18-year-old university student living in Sydney and a long-term fan of Mr Johnstone, an established YouTuber, when she reached out to the then-40-year-old and arranged to meet.
They started dating a year late and she moved to Adelaide to be with him and start her own online career.
Ms Maree says their relationship initially upset her family, including her father, who is only 12 years older than Mr Johnstone.
“But that changed in about four months … knew I was serious about it and that I was happy,” Ms Maree says.
“Now they are accepting of him.
“When I look at him every day, I see he is a mature-looking man but I don’t think of him as 46, I think of him as my age. It’s really just other people that have the problem.”
‘HE’S AMAZING’
Sarah Boardman is nearly 19 years younger than her partner, who – at 57 – is just seven years shy of her mum.
The 38-year-old was friends with rigger Tony Millar for about a year before they became romantic. Last year, he moved into the home she shares with her four children aged four to 14.
“He’s amazing with the kids,” says the Virginia mum-of-four.
The Millennial says her Gen X partner “is almost Boomer-ish” with some of his old-fashioned ways but also is “full of beans like a 16-year-old”.
She says their age gap – which sometimes draws strange looks from strangers – is “not much of an issue but I imagine it might be in the future”.
“He’s a rigger and he’s always been in labour jobs … and he’s finding that he’s starting to have a few more issues that he didn’t used to when he was younger,” she says.
“It concerns me because, like anyone you love, you don’t want to think about them not being around anymore. But I could get hit by a bus tomorrow – there’s no guarantee of anything, even if you’re the same age.”
Ms Boardman says Mr Millar jokes that he’s “going to trade me in when I turn 40 because I’ll get too old”.
“He’s good for me,” she says. “We’re all very happy.”
‘IT WAS MEANT TO BE’
Meriani Silverlake was emerging from a horror year of being diagnosed with cancer and suffering a stroke brought on by a benign brain tumour when her older partner, David Clarke, walked into her life in 2019.
The two met randomly when Mr Clarke, who was 41 at the time, reached out to the then-24-year-old on her Facebook page to tell her he was touched by her emotional journey, which she had shared online.
Six years later, they are still happily together and now have a beloved two-year-old son, Freddie.
“I thought I would notice the age gap but I just don’t,” says the Hendon mum-of-one.
“It all just seems like it was meant to be.”
Ms Silverlake suffered a seizure from an undiagnosed benign brain tumour while she was at work in 2018. She was placed in a coma and woke to discover that she also had stage four Hodgkins lymphoma.
Four rounds of chemotherapy later – and feeling jaded by the online dating scene – she was intrigued when Mr Clarke, a medical courier, reached out and arranged to meet.
“Just that day I had decided to give up on Tinder – I thought to myself ‘I’m done, guys are stupid, if it happens, it happens’ – and then that day he sent me a message,” Ms Silverlake says.
“The second I saw him I was like ‘oh my god, he’s amazing’, he was just gorgeous. There was this immediate attraction, I’ve never actually experienced that with anyone else.
“We are very happy together.”
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