timesonline.co.uk - If your partner is a lot older or younger than you, be prepared for a barrage of hostility.

This week I’ve read newspaper stories concerning a 71-year-old man, married to a 25-year-old woman, who has just become Britain’s oldest father of twins; a 112-year-old Somali man who is marrying a 17-year-old girl; and the artist Sam Taylor-Wood, 42, who just got engaged to her 19-year-old boyfriend.

I like to chew over news stories with friends but big age differences in relationships, as a conversation topic, rarely bring out the best in people. For example, the women over 30 I know — even the most laid-back or postmodern ones — tend to get disproportionately vicious when discussing a relationship between an older man and a younger woman.

I have first-hand experience of this. I was away filming in 1997 — I was 40 — and was sitting in a bar one evening with the production team, when I mentioned my then girlfriend. One of the two women on the team, both of whom were over 30, asked me what my girlfriend did for a living.

When I said “She’s a student”, dark clouds seemed to gather. “What, so she went back into education, did she?” one of the women asked. I decided to head straight for the eye of the storm.

“She’s 20,” I said. If I’d added “and I occasionally punch her in the face”, I don’t think it could have made the atmosphere much worse. It was an off-duty event and I wasn’t expecting star treatment but the ensuing debate got really quite aggressive. “What can you possibly find to talk to her about?” I was asked.... Read full article »