Owen and Jeremy, pictured. (PinkNews)
A gay couple with a considerable age gap between them have spoken about what it’s like when one of them is mistaken for the other’s dad.
Owen, 32, met 64-year-old Jeremy in 2013, when they were 23 and 55 respectively, and immediately hit it off.
While the two believe they have a love that will last the ages, the age-gap question can be more difficult to surmount than coming out.
“You get a lot more judgment for an age gap than you can for being gay,” Owen said.
“You’re conditioned from quite a young age to only date people within your little sphere and your little world… I’m happy to say: ‘No, this is my husband and I’m proud of that fact’.”
The couple have documented their relationship on social media, as The Age-Gap Guys, where they boast more than 24,000 followers.
Part of their online presence is to prove that relationships with age gaps can be just as fulfilling as any other, while they are also hoping to break the stigma attached to such partnerships.
“Being in an age-gap relationship, you have to grow slightly thicker skin and you have to learn to be OK with that and actually not worry about it,” Owen said. “You always do have to wonder how [people] are going to react.”
Things became particularly hectic after they introduced each other to both sets of parents, saying that their families had some questions about the relationship.
“I wanted to make sure very early on that if his parents didn’t like me, then it was because I wasn’t a nice person, not because of any perception they had,” Jeremy said.
The family eventually accepted the relationship and have grown to see them as a couple. “Although [Owen’s] dad is younger than me, I still call him dad and he’s happy with it,” Jeremy said.