Fans divided as Sean Penn, 64, steps out with girlfriend younger than his daughter

A new celebrity couple has made their red carpet debut and the reaction online has been mixed.

A-list actor Sean Penn, 64, has made his red-carpet debut with his girlfriend Valeria Nicvov, 30, and fans have been left divided by their age gap.

The couple looked glam as they attended the Marrakech International Film Festival.

They were first spotted together in September. Nicvov, who is from Moldova, is a model and actor.

Penn, who was previously married to Robin Wright, has two adult children, Dylan, 33, who is three years older than his girlfriend, and his son Hopper, 30, who is the same age.

He was also briefly married to Madonna in the eighties and recently split from his third wife, Leila George, 31.

The couple were married in 2020 and the Australian actor filed for divorce from Penn after just over a year of marriage.

Penn’s public outing with his new love, Nicvov, went viral online.

Some fans claimed that they thought the 30-year-old was his daughter at first glance and didn’t realise she was his date.

The couple made their red carpet debut. Picture: Antoine Flament/WireImage

“I thought she was his daughter,” one admitted.

While someone else claimed the age-gap romance was “embarrassing”, and another just commented, “Seriously?”

One fan wrote that their relationship was just “nope” and another claimed that she looked like his granddaughter.

“Such a gross age difference,” one said.

Not everyone was against their romance, though. One person defended Penn and said the commentary was “ageist” and sad.

“I’m 62 and my partner is 36. We have been together 12 years. Age is just a number and it is only love and commitment that matters,” one argued.

Another wrote that Nicvov was a “grown woman” and that, therefore, there was nothing wrong with the romance.

Someone else claimed that the people complaining about their age gap were just “jealous” of them.

Sean Penn and Leila George married in 2020 but the romance was over by 2022. Picture: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for CORE Gala

Actors Sean Penn and Robin Wright share two adult children. Picture: AcademyAwards

The couple’s romance comes after Penn was profiled by The New York Times in June 2024 and claimed he felt “thrilled everyday” that he was single.

“If I’m going to be in a relationship, I’m still going to be free, or I’m not going to be in it, and I’m not going to be hurting. I don’t sense I’ll have my heart broken by romance again,” he told the publication.

Penn also opened up about one of his marriages, although he did not share which marriage he was referring to and claimed the background noise of his life was either Housewives of Beverley Hills or Love Island.

“Not even being in the room – I’m not saying this to be cute – I was dying. I felt my heart, my brain shrinking. It was an assault,” he claimed.