Murray Bridge great-grandmother reveals: ‘My fifth husband-to-be is 32 years younger than me’

Liz Burton, 59, is preparing to walk down the aisle for the fifth time this year. Her fiance is 32 years her junior.

At 59, great-grandmother Liz Burton is 32 years older than her fiance, Cory Barefield, who she will marry in September.

The Murray Bridge widow has seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild – and her future husband is the same age as her 27-year-old granddaughter, who cheekily calls him “grandpa”.

“When we first got together, I actually broke it off after two weeks … told him to go off and have his own family, I’ve done all that,” says Mrs Burton, who has already been married four times and cared for her last husband until he died at the age of 62 in 2020.

Elizabeth Burton, 59, and her fiance Cory Barefield, 27. Supplied

“I told Cory I didn’t want him to have to care for me when I’m older … but it was him that said ‘isn’t that my choice?’.

“I did go down the track of ‘I’m so much older, why?’ and that still creeps in, but not from his side, my side.”

The couple’s age gap pales in comparison to the nearly 50-year difference between 80-year-old former prime minister Paul Keating and his reported new love, a 30-something Polish waitress younger than his three daughters.

Former prime minister Paul Keating is reportedly in a relationship with a 30-something Polish waitress. Picture: Getty Images

US singer Cher, 78, is dating music executive Alexander Edwards – who is 40 years her junior. Picture: Stefano Rellandini / AFP

But she and her fiance still attract strange looks from strangers.

“It has its challenges but they are more around other people’s perception. We do get looks in the street but we just ignore them,” says Mrs Burton, who will hyphenate her last name to Burton-Barefield once she is married.

“For your Paul Keatings of this world – because he’s the older man – it’s deemed more acceptable.

“But because I’m the older woman, Cory’s copped a little bit of flak, ‘what the hell are you doing’.”

Mrs Burton, who plans to hold her wedding to Mr Barefield at their local community club before taking a week’s honeymoon, says she now believes age is “just a number” and not relevant in a relationship.

“It’s having common interests, which is not age-related, and not letting the opinions of others have an impact,” says the retired counsellor, who shares a keen curiosity for the paranormal with her fiance.

“It’s my health with my fibromyalgia that’s kept me back at the moment, not my age.”

The bespoke engagement ring Cory Barefield, 27, used to propose to his fiance, 59-year-old Liz Burton.

Mr Barefield, who proposed with a bespoke engagement ring last October, says being with Mrs Burton is “just like a normal relationship to me”.

He likes to take her on date nights, when they go out for a meal or sit by the river together.

“People make judgments but, honestly, they can keep them to themselves because it’s none of their business anyway,” says the service station worker, who has been engaged before but is marrying for the first time.

He says he loves Mrs Burton’s caring, supportive nature and unstinting support. And he says his dad – who is younger than his future wife – “loves her, my grandparents love her”.

Mrs Burton says most of her own family is “fully supportive” of her relationship with Mr Barefield.

“They just welcomed him because he is my other half,” she says. “It’s our choice how we live our lives as adults.”