Paws-itive vibes only: 2024 may be shaping up to be the year of the cougar. It could also be Leo season all year long.
Cross-generational relationships — also known as “gen-blend” relationships — are expected to surge next year, Bumble reports as part of its annual dating trends forecast.
63% say age isn’t a defining factor in dating, while 59% of women admit they are more open to dating someone younger than them, according to a global survey of over 26,800 Bumble app members conducted in September.
35% of women confess they are less judgmental about age-gap relationships.
Toby Ingham, a psychotherapist and author of the new self-help book “Retroactive Jealousy, Making Sense of It,” says the perfect age disparity doesn’t exist in relationships.
“There used to be an idea that, as a rule of thumb, half your age plus seven was the guide to the younger age a partner should be,” he told the Mirror this week.
“That may now be outdated. From one point of view, we might prefer that our partners were peers — contemporaries of us. That if the gap was too big there would be problems in terms of cultural values, interest, etc. Now, the [societal] accent being on inclusivity and normalizing difference might eradicate such ideas,” he added.
Age-gap relationships aren’t new, of course. Recall Alec, 65, and Hilaria Baldwin, 39; Priyanka Chopra, 41, and Nick Jonas, 31; and Leonardo DiCaprio, 49, and Vittoria Ceretti, 25, Gigi Hadid, Nina Agdal, Kelly Rohrbach, etc.
Some have long touted the benefits of gen-blend relationships.
A Syracuse woman said the 27-year gap with her husband makes him a “better dad” to their toddler, despite strangers mistaking him for the boy’s granddad — or her own father.
“I was upset when Michael and I first slept together because in my head I didn’t think I wanted to be [with] an older man,” Gretchen Dillon, then 36, told SWNS last year. “I took some time and came to terms with it, now I’m happier than ever.”
One Texas couple with a 47-year age difference gushed about their love last year while slamming criticism.
“She is so perfect for me and she is very experienced in life and teaches me a lot. We never fight, can always talk without yelling and I trust her completely,” Devaughn Aubrey, then 27, said of Kathi Jenkins, 74, at the time.
“Because of our age gap, sometimes people assume that Kathi is rich and that I want all her money — which is not the case at all,” Aubrey added.
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