What’s in an age (gap)?
There’s something to be said for what a more mature woman can bring to a relationship
Glorious Tamzin Outhwaite has made the menopause look almost enjoyable. The former Eastenders actress is starring in a new Youtube show called Breedin’ with Angela Griffin and Denise Welch about the subject. And, at the same time, she’s sticking up for women with younger partners.
Tamzin, 49, says, ‘A woman being very sure of what she wants or what she is in her life doesn’t make her a cougar, because there are two people involved in this relationship. Not all men want younger women. When you find someone you connect with, what, because you’re different ages you shouldn’t do that?’
Tamzin will be 50 this year, her partner,
Tom Child, has just turned 29. They clearly love each other to bits and have considered the age gap carefully. She says, ‘We have thought about this, we have talked about this. At the beginning you think, “Can we do this?” But the minute we became official and thought we’re all right with it, then no one else’s opinions matter, apart from my children.’ Of course in any age-difference relationship it is the cultural references that might trip you up. If Tom was born in 1991 then leg warmers and Duran Duran will mean nothing to him. But if your younger half is a mature 29, then two decades’ difference is irrelevant. Maturity comes from the experiences we face as we grow up and how we learn from them. Equally, Tamzin is a young looking and sounding 49-year-old, so who’s to say they don’t average out at 39 years old between them?
If her two daughters aren’t worried about their mum dating Tom, then who are we to judge?