A woman who started dating a man old enough to be her father when she was a teenager says she doesn’t mind the comments people make about their relationship.
Natasha Maree, 25, and her partner Harley Johnstone, 46, have often been told by strangers that they shouldn’t be together because of their massive 21-year age gap.
She was 18 when she met her partner six years ago, when she was a young university student living in Sydney.
The Adelaide fitness influencers started dating a year later and have been together ever since.
Mrs. Maree admitted that Her family, including her father, who is 12 years older than Mr Johnstone, did not initially accept their budding relationship.
Their views changed after a few months when they accepted that she was in a serious and loving relationship and welcomed him into the family.
There is a 21-year age difference between Natasha Maree (right) and her partner Harley Johnstone (left)
She says the secret to their partnership’s success is mutual appreciation and shared interests.
‘We have many common interests. “Common interests are essential, regardless of the age difference,” she told the Adelaide Advertiser.
Maree has gotten used to comments from other people who keep telling her that her partner is old enough to be her father.
“We get a lot of attention,” he said.
‘We have had hundreds of people, because we work online, tell us over the years ‘he’s too old’, ‘she’s too young’, ‘he’s a cad’, ‘she’s inexperienced’. in the life’.
Ms Maree, who was a long-time fan of Mr Johnstone, decided to meet the fitness influencer when she was 18.
When they started dating one year, Maree moved to Adelaide to be closer to her partner and launch her own career as a fitness influencer.
Natasha Maree (right) admitted her family was initially unhappy with her relationship with Harley (left) until four months later.
The couple often appears together on their YouTube pages, where they have more than 380,000 combined followers.
Maree also posts photos of the couple on her Instagram page, which is followed by 124,000 people.
On Saturday, she uploaded a video to her YouTube page to explain why she is dating an older man.
The couple is not the first nor will they be the last to share a significant age difference.
American actor Jeff Goldblum, 67, is 30 years older than his third wife, Emilie Livingstone, whom he married in 2014.
Veteran actor Nicolas Cage, 60, is also more than three decades older than his fifth wife, Riko Shibata, 29, while Michael Douglas is 25 years older than his wife Catherine Zeta Jones, 54.