Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we’ll be examining the celebrity couples that give us hope for our own romantic futures and trying to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
I haven’t always been a proponent of the May-December romance, but I have to admit that’s mostly a me problem. When I was in my early 20s, nearly all of my experiences dating older people ended in light humiliation when I would fail to recognize an E.R. reference (sorry, I was famously born in 1993!) or they would question me endlessly about what TikTok was, exactly. (I’ll be honest: I still don’t really know, apart from the place where I watch my lesbian home-reno videos. If any genuinely young, cool person wants to explain it to me in a platonic context, I’m all ears.)
I stand by the notion that a relationship is only as mature as the youngest person in it, which is why it so reliably bums me out when the Leos of this world are spotted cavorting with women in their 20s or even late teens (ahem, looking at you, Seinfeld). I’m not trying to be a Church Lady—a before-my-time SNL reference I never would have gotten if I hadn’t briefly dated an older comedian, by the way—but if your whole thing is dating people who have only recently gained the legal right to drink, I do have certain questions about your maturity level.
All this is to say, I do think a May-December relationship can work, as long as the balance of power is relatively equal and the May component is, you know, a grown adult. That’s why I’m praying desperately that 77-year-old music icon Cher really is back together with her 37-year-old ex, music executive Alexander “AE” Edwards. The two were spotted holding hands outside of a Beverly Hills restaurant recently, just four months after their alleged split, and forgive me for doing celebrity Kremlinology based solely on paparazzi photographs, but…the vibes seem to be there!
A 40-year age gap is definitely nothing to sneeze at (that’s the combined age of, like, two of Leo’s girlfriends!), and I obviously don’t actually know the couple in question, but I do kind of love the general badassery of Cher spending her 70s dating younger men. The two were (allegedly) briefly engaged before breaking up, and obviously, a handhold isn’t binding proof of a rekindled flame, but I’m still desperately hoping we get a full-on wedding out of these two before Cher’s 80th birthday. Cher has, after all, given the LGBTQ+ community so much; the very least we can do is stay up all night to watch coverage of her nuptials to a cute younger man, royal-wedding style.