A woman who started dating a man much older than her as a teenager says she doesn’t care about what people say about their relationship.
Natasha Maree, 25, and her boyfriend Harley Johnstone, 46, often hear from strangers that their 21-year age difference is too much. She was only 18 and a university student in Sydney when she first met Harley six years ago.
The fitness influencers from Adelaide started dating a year later and have been together ever since. Natasha admitted that her family, including her father, who is 12 years older than Mr. Johnstone, didn’t initially accept their relationship.
However, after a few months, her family’s views changed. They saw that she was in a serious and loving relationship and welcomed him into the family.
She believes their successful relationship comes from valuing each other and enjoying common interests.
“We have many common interests. Common interests are a must regardless of your age gap,” said Natasha.
She said she has now become accustomed to strangers commenting that her partner is old enough to be her father.
“We get a lot of attention,” she added. “We’ve had hundreds of people because we work online tell us over the years “he’s too old,” “She’s too young,” “he’s a creep,” “She has no life experience.”
Ms. Maree, who had been a long-time fan of Mr. Johnstone, decided to meet the well-known fitness influencer when she was 18.
A year after they started dating, Ms. Maree moved to Adelaide to be closer to her partner and start her own career as a fitness influencer. The couple often appear together on their YouTube channels, where they have over 380,000 combined followers.
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Source: Daily Mail