16 Famous People In Age Gap Relationships Who Met When One Of Them Was Still A Minor
It\“s always surprising to hear about celebrity couples with major age gaps — but what\“s even more shocking is how young some stars were when they met their future partners. Reddit user u/phantom_avenger recently started a thread to share celebrities who were underage when they first crossed paths with their much-older partners, and I literally had to do a double-take at some of these stories. Here are 16 celebrity couples who met their partners wayyyyy earlier than you\“d ever expect:1. First up, singer Celine Dion. She met her late husband, Rene Angelil, when she was 12 and he was 38. /uploads/allimg/2025/10/706232794998228791.jpgGabe Ginsberg / WireImage
According to People, Dion was 12 when Angelil became her manager, but their professional relationship didn\“t turn romantic until the singer was 19. By the time they married in 1994, Dion was 26 and Angelil was 52. They were together until Angelil\“s death in 2016.
2. French President Emmanuel Macron met his wife, Brigitte Macron, when he was 15 and she was 39. /uploads/allimg/2025/10/7158157434400205964.jpgLucy North - PA Images / PA Images via Getty Images
The future president was a 15-year-old student when he met Brigitte, who was his 39-year-old drama teacher. At the time, she was married with three kids, but she divorced her first husband and married Macron in 2007 following their “decade-long affair.“
When Macron\“s parents found out that he and his teacher were romantically involved, he was sent to boarding school to avoid scandal, but the distance didn\“t keep the two apart. “I told myself that he would fall in love with someone his age,“ Brigitte Macron said in an interview. “It didn\“t happen.“ SOPA Images / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
3. Speaking of politicians with large age-gap relationships, Pierre Trudeau was 47 years old when he met Margaret Sinclair, who was 18 at the time. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
The former Canadian Prime Minister met his future wife in 1968 while both were vacationing separately in Tahiti. They married in 1971 — Trudeau was 51, Sinclair was 22 — and had their eldest son, Justin Trudeau, later that year, followed by two more children.
After their marriage, the “wild child“ First Lady\“s social life became a huge point of controversy. She was frequently photographed partying at Studio 54, the iconic New York City discotheque, and specifically drew criticism for doing so during the 1979 election that her husband went on to lose. TPLP / Getty Images
Pierre and Margaret Trudeau\“s marriage ended in divorce in 1984.
4. Victorious actress Elizabeth Gillies met her husband, Michael Corcoran, when she was 16 and he was 38. Charley Gallay / WireImage
They met on the set of the Nickelodeon show, where he worked as a music producer. In an interview with Vogue, Gillies says the pair didn\“t start dating immediately. “I always had a crush on him,“ she says. “But I played it cool.“
Gillies and Corcoran have been happily married since 2020. Jean Catuffe / GC Images
5. Late R&B Singer Aaliyah was 12 when she met R. Kelly, who was 25 at the time. Vinnie Zuffante / Getty Images / Chicago Tribune / TNS
According to the BBC, Aaliyah was sexually abused by R. Kelly in her early teen years before marrying him illegally at the age of 15 — a union that was later annulled. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001. R. Kelly is currently serving a 31-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering.
R.Kelly was the producer of Aaliyah\“s debut album, Age Ain\“t Nothing But A Number — a title that reads much differently in hindsight. @AaliyahMusicVideo / Via youtube.com
6. Kylie Jenner met rapper Tyga when she was 14 and he was 21. Dimitrios Kambouris
According to People, Kylie met the rapper at her sister Kendall Jenner\“s 16th birthday party in 2011 — but rumors of a Kylie-Tyga romance didn\“t start swirling until a few years later. Their relationship was confirmed on Kylie\“s 18th birthday, when the rapper publicly gifted her a Ferrari. They dated on and off until breaking up for good in 2017.
7. Filmmaker Woody Allen met his now-wife, Soon-Yi Previn, when she was 10 and he was in his 40s. Mondadori Portfolio / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
You may need to read this one twice: Woody Allen met Soon-Yi Previn when she was a child and he was in a relationship with her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow. Years later, Allen began his affair with Previn — his then-girlfriend\“s daughter — when he was 56 and she was 21. They got married in 1997 and remain together. You can find a full timeline of their complicated and unconventional relationship here.
8. When husband and wife singing duo Sonny and Cher first met, she was 16 and he was 27. David Redfern / Redferns
Rather than love at first sight, their story started off as roommates. Soon after they met, Cher\“s roommates kicked her out, and according to Biography.com, “he said she could stay with him if she cleaned the place.“ Their relationship turned from platonic to romantic over time. The Biography.com article quotes a 1975 interview in which Cher reflects on the slowburn: “It wasn’t a fiery, sexy thing with us, but rather paternal, like we were bound together, two people who needed each other, almost for protection.“
9. When Elvis Presley met his future wife, Priscilla Presley, she was 14 and he was 24. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
They met in Germany in 1959, when Elvis was stationed there with the U.S. Army and Priscilla\“s stepfather was transferred there by the Air Force. Despite the age gap, they kept in touch via letters even after Elvis finished his enlistment, and eventually got married in 1967.
Their relationship was dramatized in Sofia Copolla\“s movie, Priscilla, with Cailee Spaeny playing the role of Priscilla Presley and Jacob Elordi playing Elvis. A24 / Via youtube.com
10. Actor Wilmer Valderrama was 29 when he met 17-year-old singer Demi Lovato, and they began dating when she turned 18. John Shearer / Getty Images
The two dated on and off from 2010 to 2016. People have speculated that Lovato\“s song “29“ is about Valderrama, the lyrics a potential reflection on their age-gap: “Far from innocent, what the fuck\“s consent? / Numbers told you not to, but that didn\“t stop you.“
11. In 1993, then 39-year-old Jerry Seinfeld dated 17-year-old Shoshanna Lonstein. Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Seinfeld met the then-high schooler in Central Park, and they dated until 1997. According to a 1994 People magazine article covering their “unlikely romance,“ they made the early relationship work by visiting each other — the comedian visited Lonstein at George Washington University, where she was an underclassman, and she took weekend trips to LA to watch Seinfeld being taped.
12. Actress Lita Grey was only 6 years old when she met filmmaker Charlie Chaplin at a Hollywood cafe. New York Daily News Archive / NY Daily News via Getty Images
They reconnected professionally when Grey was 12, and she was cast in Chaplin\“s movie, “The Kid“ （1921）. Their romantic relationship, which was short-lived but tumultuous, began a few years later. When Grey was 15, she became pregnant by 34-year-old Chaplin. They married when Grey was 16, but got divorced after two years of marriage.
13. Dancing With The Stars professionals Pasha Pashkov and Daniella Karagach first met through their dance coach when he was 23 and she was 15. Christopher Willard / Disney
The two were paired as dance partners and trained together for a year before beginning a romantic relationship. They have been together ever since, marrying in 2014 and welcoming their first daughter in 2023. Both are currently competing on the ongoing season of DWTS, with Pashkov partnered with Boy Meets World\“s Danielle Fishel and Karagach dancing with Dylan Efron.
14. Rock-and-roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis was 22 years old when he married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. Keystone / Getty Images
They married in 1958 while Lewis was still technically married to another woman, a scandal that derailed his entire career.
Though they divorced in 1970 and Lewis went on to have several other marriages, Myra Gale Brown （now Myra Williams） reflected on the lasting impact of their relationship in a 2014 interview, saying, “It’s not a story that ever went away. I’m still the 13-year-old child bride.“
15. Late One Direction member Liam Payne was 14 when he auditioned for X Factor and met judge Cheryl Cole, who was 10 years his senior and would later become the mother of his child. David M. Benett / Getty Images
The former X Factor judge reconnected with Payne when he was 23. They started dating in 2016, welcomed their son in 2017, and split up in 2018, though they remained close co-parents up until Payne\“s untimely death in 2024.
16. And finally, many people don\“t know about the fling Fergie and Justin Timberlake had in the 1990s when she was 23 and he was 16. Christopher Polk / FilmMagic for Us Weekly Magazine
However, on a 2017 episode of Watch What Happens Live, Fergie told host Andy Cohen that her relationship with Timberlake “wasn\“t all that serious.“
Well, that was a rollercoaster. Which of these surprised you most? Did we forget any celebs who met their partners at an eyebrow-raising age? Let us know in the comments.
页:
[1]