Why Keanu’s new relationship has got us all talking

The nicest man in Hollywood has a new girlfriend – and the reaction says more about us than him, says Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman

praised for having girlfriend in the same age bracket’ was the headline on satirical news site The Daily Mash, the day after news broke that Keanu Reeves had, for the first time in his near 40-year career, appeared on the red carpet with a girlfriend, and one old enough to remember life before iphones. The public response ranged from delighted (‘Why I’m thrilled that Hollywood’s loveliest man has a new girlfriend’, The Guardian) to the bemused (‘She has GREY HAIR,’ one similarly silver-haired friend texted me in astonishment). Now, Reeves’ girlfriend is not Methuselah. In fact, Alexandra Grant, 46, is most definitely younger than 55-yearold Reeves. But she is not young enough to be his daughter (or granddaughter), and that is enough to make this Hollywood megastar’s relationship seem extraordinary.

Dennis Quaid, 65, is engaged to 26-year-old Laura Savoie; Sean Penn, 59, is dating Leila George, 27, who is not only young enough to be his daughter, but is the daughter of his friend Vincent D’onofrio. (Bet the holidays will be fun at the Penn/ D’onofrio residences this year.) Leonardo Dicaprio, 44, has never dated a woman over 25, and his current girlfriend, Camila Morrone, was born the year Titanic came out.

Now, maybe these men are experiencing true love. But do they also look like tragic, emotionally arrested clichés who are too immature to have a relationship with a woman who’s had life experiences and is ostensibly their equal? Yes. Do they care? No. And good luck to them all, as they doubtless continue to date 19-year-old models well into their dotage.

And then there’s Keanu Reeves. Reeves was already agreed to be The Nicest Man in Hollywood, one who will always give up his seat on the subway to a woman, who will help fellow passengers on a plane during emergency landings. And now, just in case he wasn’t already considered enough of a perfect aberration in the world of celebrity heartthrobs, he is dating a woman born before the 1990s (before the 1980s!), who is a longterm friend and an accomplished artist in her own right. Even better, on her Instagram (obsessive, moi?) are photos of him at her various art launches, going back to 2017. Now, Dicaprio may well say that he dates women who work, ie, actresses and models, and perhaps he has, but I have never seen him actually support their work, unless going to a Victoria’s Secret show counts.

Part of what makes all this so delightful is that, heretofore, Reeves kept his private life such a carefully guarded secret that he was generally assumed to be a lonely loner. The 2010 photo of him solemnly eating a sandwich on a New York bench birthed the ‘Sad Keanu’ meme that wouldn’t die. Until now: Sad Keanu no more. Now, delightfully, he has someone with whom he can share his sandwiches.