Why do younger women prefer older men

Disappointing, but not surprising. When Keanu Reeves was photographed with his girlfriend Alexandra Grant , who had grey hair and looked her age 47 , he was inundated with congratulations and back-claps, as though he deserved praise for dating a woman his age. The thing is: he is still nine years older than her. In the business where Hollywood is strangely obsessed with youth and where optics are everything, I can understand why a leading man or indeed, woman would get involved with someone much younger.

Looks and beauty aside, a younger person brings new energy and refreshed perspective on life to a relationship. This phenomenon is not restricted to the rarefied world of celebrity. But why does this supposed fixation that older men appear to have on young women bother me so much? Is it because, as a something woman, it reminds me that in the world of dating, women of my vintage have depreciated in value?

That the idea suggests physical appearance still matters more for women than men and we are thought to diminish in attractiveness more precipitously? Why am I rolling my eyes at the mere thought of Russell Crowe having to speed-learn the basics of TikTok to get hooked up with younger women?

At 20, working in a Dublin hotel bar to pay my way through college, I met an American man, then in his mids.

He was charmingly boyish but had his own apartment in LA, wore aftershave and worked as a record producer I could barely spell career. It was a sizeable step up from the Snakebite-guzzling lads I was more used to. Suitably smitten, I moved to Los Angeles after college so we could make a go of things.

Well, it was a disaster. With no career or money of my own to speak of and me living in his apartment, the balance of power was already on a perilously unhealthy tilt. Sure, we made each other laugh but I was under no illusion that for him, this was a predominantly sexual relationship. It seems to be rather popular. We tend to portray older men as more romantic, wiser and kinder. Professor Fugere points out that this phenomenon persists throughout our lives, as men age they prefer even younger partners while as women age they continue to prefer older partners until around the age of Is this what attracted her to him in the first place?

Similarly, Susan not her real name is 27 and currently about to move in with her year-old boyfriend Shaun yep, not his name either. I fucking hate this. To understand more about how we use cookies or to change your settings, please consult the section : Your Choice with Cookies. Shows Announcers Contests Events Contact us. The Overnight Beat. Their senior years display how strong are their genes.

In other words, in our evolutionary past, when people generally pegged it in their twenties, the fact that a man made it to his sixties indicated he must have something very powerful going for him genetically, a trend that still produces biological effects.

Similarly, the reverse process - younger males seeking older females - occurs far more rarely because a woman's fertility starts to decline in her mid-thirties, and terminates in the menopause, researchers added.

However, the idea has been criticised because it does not explain why young women are not attracted to all older men. As a result, Proulx has put forward new findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society - a theory that combines both the ideas of wealth and male longevity.

It is the very fact that an older male can still display his munificence that really makes a female's head turn.