Mary-Kate Olsen has stepped out in New York with her boyfriend Olivier Sarkozy, who is 16 years her senior and Sally Humphreys is dating 65-year-old Ronnie Woods, 31 years her senior, so what’s the attraction with older men?
Do Older Men Do It For You?
The Office for National Statistics show that women marry for the first time at 29, and men at 32, which shows that women generally seem to be going for older men.
Research conducted by Lovestruck.com reaffirms this. They conducted a survey of 5000 of their female member and found that 38 per cent of them choose a man that is, on average, three years older than them.
I’m an advocate for older men myself, always finding men in their thirties more attractive than the ones in my own age group (twenties) due to their higher level of maturity.
Jenni Trent Hughes, Relationship Expert and Spokeswoman for eHarmony.co.uk, says this is one of the many reasons that women find older men attractive.
She says, “There are many reasons why a younger woman may be attracted to an older man. Nowadays many women are achieving success in their careers at a much younger age – like Mary-Kate, and are looking for a man who is going to be on the same level.
“There are also women who feel that an older man will be more sophisticated or mature and have more to teach and show them.
“Some young women tell me that they feel dating an older man is less pressurized and there is less competition than you may find with a few young women chasing after the same young man.”
Jenni says that although a woman being attracted to older men is common in the Western world, sometimes the UK can be quite disapproving.
She says, “For some reason when we see a young girl with an older man the first assumption is either that there is a financial benefit to be gained or she had issues relating to her father. Stuff of nonsense!”
Relationships are based, not on what age you are, but at what stage in your life you are at, believes Jenni.
Women are more likely to gain success in their work-life at a younger age and are looking for an older man with the same values and beliefs.
Jenni says, “An age gap need not be problematic, or insurmountable if you are at the same life stage, and have the same values in life. The key to a good relationship is to be as compatible as possible in your core beliefs and values, as these are things that don’t change over time.
“The bottom line is that no matter if the age gap is two months or two decade,s what you really need is two people who are compatible. Do you have the same outlook on most things, do you have the same or similar beliefs, wants, desires and thoughts on how best to achieve all those things? That is compatibility and in the long run that will always matter much more than age.”
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