After receiving harsh criticism, a social media personality has defended her choice to date a 16-year-old boy. Natasha Newcombe, 21, from Kent, recently began dating 16-year-old Marko Vituk from Maidstone. The couple shared their news on their social media accounts.
Since making their relationship public, they have faced a wave of negative reactions from people who find their five-year age gap problematic. Despite the backlash, Tasha supports her decision and openly addresses the criticism.
To address the ongoing controversy, Tasha recently shared more about her relationship with Mark on TikTok. She revealed that while she was initially unsure about dating someone still in school, she now feels their relationship is “healthy, happy, and loving.”
Natasha, who works in party planning, has been active on social media for six years. She currently has 263.3K followers on TikTok and her party-themed videos have received 10 million likes.
She defended her three-month relationship with Marko by emphasizing that it is “legal,” despite the criticism from many viewers. Although Marko is still in school and legally too young to drink or drive, he has also gained recognition as a content creator and influencer.
In addition to his school responsibilities, Marko boxes and has recently launched a YouTube podcast, Empowered, which bills itself as “A Podcast That Is Taking Over The Net.”
In a five-minute video that has garnered nearly two million views, Tasha addressed the situation on TikTok. She used the video to explain her perspective and firmly told her critics that she would not tolerate trolling.
“The reason I’m making this video today is obviously to talk about my relationship,” she said. “I am in a relationship with someone who’s five years younger than me and I know a lot of people are gonna have their opinions on that and quite rightly so, you’re allowed to have your opinions, that’s your free will.”
“I’ve seen a lot of comments and videos from bullies saying ‘you know what you’re doing is wrong’ and ‘this is why you said you wouldn’t meet him’,” she added.
The couple first connected online before deciding to meet in person. Tasha admitted she was hesitant about the face-to-face meeting because she was worried it might lead to criticism.
“The reason I was so unsure about meeting my boyfriend or pursuing anything with him is because of the backlash I was going to face and that is quite frankly, only down to opinion,” she said. “Nothing else, opinion that is it. Nothing to do with what’s right or wrong, just opinion.”
“I was also unsure of meeting him because I’ve actually never dated someone younger than me in my life. I didn’t know what kind of challenges that was gonna bring forward for me but regardless, I’m in a relationship with him now.”
She continued, “It’s my life, I’m going to live my life how I want to live my life. If I decide I want to be in a relationship with him, I can because it is legal. Whether you think it’s morally right or not, it is legal.”
She added that even though her relationship is still new, Marko is genuinely the most mature, kind, and loving person she has ever been with.
“Although my relationship is very new, I just have to say that this boy is genuinely the most mature, kind, loving person I’ve ever been in a relationship with.”
Once again, she stressed that the backlash stems from differing opinions and pleaded with viewers not to direct hate toward her, her friends, or her family.
“That, I will not f**ing stand for.”
The couple has been flooded with comments on their videos, with most of them addressing the five-year age gap.
“Wait, is this legal?’ while another asked in jest, ‘are you going to results day?” one wrote.
“Did you sign his leavers t-shirt then?’ while a third said he looked like Tasha’s younger brother,” asked another.
“It’s actually beyond foul, I’m concerned,” a third added.
At the end of her video, the influencer made her stance on her critics clear. She revealed that, amidst the judgmental comments, she has also received “threatening” messages urging her to harm herself.
“Quite frankly, I don’t give a f*** about the 12-year-olds who are commenting towards me and my family and stuff like that, it’s the grown women directing hate towards my family.”
She added, “What I can’t wrap my head around, is if you don’t like something, a creator or relationship, there is a block button,’ she said, referring to her trolls as ‘key-board warriors’.”
“Is it affecting your life?” she asked. “No. Me and my boyfriend are in a very beautiful, loving, happy and healthy relationship and the fact that people are sitting there, worried and throwing such serious accusations at me, is sick and twisted.”
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Source: TikTok
