When Leokardia married her partner Des, it was one of the most important days of her life. Despite this, no one from her family was there.
“It was extremely difficult, coming from such a European family; we’re all in each other’s lives,” says Leokardia.
The age difference between the couple is 34 years, which family and friends found hard to accept.
“My friends were shocked. Absolutely mortified, horrified, didn't know what to do with me. ‘What does this mean? Do we still go out? Can we still go to, you know, bars or can we just still just hang out or what does this mean?’”
Soon after getting married, the couple had their first child and now have two sons. Their families are now more accepting but they still get negative reactions when out in public.
“People constantly think he’s my dad, [or] that he’s the children’s grandfather. Now that the boys are quite articulate, they snap back at people, ‘That’s my dad’,” says Leokardia.
Leokardia and Des faced many hurdles when they decided to get married. Source: Supplied
Fifty-two-year-old Russell remembers when he realised how big the generational difference was between him and his 19-year-old boyfriend, Zach.
“I checked my social media and went ‘Oh, my God, Aretha's died’ and he said, ‘Oh really? Aretha who?’ And I said, ‘Aretha Franklin.’ He went, ‘Oh, is she a friend of yours?’”
Russell says musical knowledge isn’t the only difference. There are also large financial gaps.
“I'm very set in my career, I've got a stable position. I've recently bought an apartment, I guess I'm talking about long service leave and my mortgage and things which is a very different thing to what a 19-year-old would be thinking about,” he says.
Despite the differences, the couple are determined to make it work.
“As time [passes], I think about it less often. I'm just more focused on us,” says Zach.
Not all relationships with large age gaps have a happy ending. Gabby’s second marriage was to a man 17 years younger than her but ended after eight years.
“I don't necessarily think they work. You do go through different stages in your life yourself and he obviously got to that stage where he wanted something that he hadn't quite gone through yet...he'd sort of jumped a few spots rather than growing up first,” says Gabby.
