..to find Aaron Taylor Johnson and his wife super creepy?

[insidenumber9]

Just this really. He was a 16 year old child actor when they met, and she was his director and in her 40s. It’s so sad. Maybe I’m projecting as had a bad relationship with an older man as a teen, but I feel she stole his childhood.

From that article linked up thread where they were 'arm in arm' 'top dogs' 'matching jackets' on set of the film it's clear she was just as into him as he was and hardly trying to discourage him if that's what was happening. If a teenager gets a crush on a 40+ person it's very easy for the older person to shut it down, or go to HR/equivalent if they can't. She 100% encouraged him.

There’s 20 years between me and DP but we got together when I was mid 30’s and him mid 50’s, we were both home owners and he was only on a little bit more money then, than I am now (we have both got better paying jobs since we met). It’s a whole different ballgame when there’s a power imbalance like that, and when one of the pair is barely an adult- certainly not in the actual sense of the word. It’s very sleazy!

I thought it odd that in the recent article about them, old age was not mentioned once, both in terms of practicalities and attraction

She just thinks it sounds better if they insist that he chased her.
Its PR bollocks.

Exactly! As IF a teenager is going to behave that way towards his adult boss!

Yep - when I was the grand old ancient age of 24 I met a lad in a club. They were shit hot on being strictly 21+ so I assumed he was. We exchanged numbers and met up a few days later and he revealed he was 18! I was horrified and instantly called it off. (I spent the next few weeks feeling disgusted with myself because I'd snogged a teenage). That was with a six year age gap.

I read that article a while back, I remember thinking the ‘they know who the top dogs are’ comment embarrassingly arrogant and twattish then.

It's never mentioned when the man is much older? See Michael Douglas - Catherine Zeta-Jones, George and Amal Clooney, etc.

Catherine and Amal were in their late 20's/early 30's when they got together with their future husbands so it is very different.

And there was a great deal of mention of Catherine and Michael’s age gap at the time.

It's never mentioned when the man is much older? See Michael Douglas - Catherine Zeta-Jones, George and Amal Clooney, etc.

They weren't teenagers.

Liam Payne was 14 when a 24 year old Cheryl Tweedy set her sights on him. Now that is gross.

CZJ and Amal were both in their thirties when they met their future spouses. Hopefully you can spot the difference in the situations.

<massive eye roll>

That’s when she first MET him.

Do you have evidence that she was grooming him from that age?

The original comment was about practicalities in old age, i.e. when she's a pensioner, not when they first met. It's never mentioned when the man is a pensioner and the woman is 20 yrs younger. Hopefully you can roll your eyes back down enough to re-read properly.

As per my previous comments, there was clear grooming here, the 'he pursued me' line is straight out of the pedo handbook.

The office Spotify played this earlier. It made me think of this thread

Dating someone you knew as a child when you were an adult is creepy AF

Great song! Very apt

The people who say 'well 18 is an adult by law' make me wonder wtf their moral compass is. In some countries the age of majority is 15, in some countries girls can get married at 13 or even younger if their dad says it's ok.

It's legal so you'd be fine with it?

There was a massive big deal made when Catherine Zeta Jones got with Michael Douglas, you couldn’t have missed it.
Were you not in the country or something?

@Beefcurtains79 it was a long time ago so a lot of people on MN weren't even born then! Catherine Zeta-Jones met MD in 1998 when she was 26 and MD was 51 and she had already been engaged a couple of times before (once to John Leslie) so it's nothing like a 17 year old being groomed by a 42 year old.

Yes good point but I guess just in pure biological terms, an older man can still reproduce

I was also curious from a female perspective, if an aging woman with a much younger lover, worries about losing her attractiveness, (and I'm guessing the same would apply to men?)

Mumsnet hates an age gap relationship and there is always a warning that one of you is going to end up the other’s carer, which apparently the younger one in the relationship has never even thought about til someone here brought it to their attention👀

However, this isn’t really about an age gap relationship, is it? It’s about grooming and it’s very disturbing.

I’m not suggesting it is, I’m just correcting the poster that claimed no one batted an eyelid when CZJ and Michael got together.