Meet three Sun readers who are dating toyboys just like Kate Moss and Cheryl
Younger men are now the top fashion accessory for A-list women and these ladies explain the attraction
YOUNG men, beware – toyboys are now the top fashion accessory for A-list women.
Some of the world’s most beautiful ladies have traded in mature men for younger ones.
Models Kate Moss, 42, and Lara Stone, 32, are the latest celebs to parade their pretty boys – Stone getting close to hunky Australian model Jordan Barrett, 19, and Mossy dating Count Nikolai von Bismarck, 29.
Movie star Kate Hudson, 37, started the trend last year as rumours of a romance with singer Nick Jonas, 23, made headlines.
This year, former Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding, 34, hooked up with Benjamin Costain – 13 years her junior – after the pair met at a football match. And how can we forget the love affair between Cheryl, 32, and One Direction star Liam Payne, 22. They have moved into a Los Angeles mansion together after dating for just five months.
Luckily for all those fresh-faced young fellas out there, it is not just celebs getting a piece of the action.
Here, three Sun readers dating toyboys explain the attraction.
22 YEAR AGE GAP
LEYLA EDWARDS, 46, lives with her 24-year-old boyfriend Lee Haydon, who is a recovery worker, and her daughter Summer, 20, in Ipswich. Personal development coach Leyla says:
"When I first met Lee, at one of the karaoke nights I organise, I didn’t think twice about his age. I’ve always been young at heart and would much rather be out partying than at home .
"When we met in 2014, Lee had just finished university so he wasn’t working. He had moved back in with his parents and was living in a cabin in their garden.
I put on my 80s music and he still doesn't know it
"He didn’t have much money so I got used to us doing things cheaply. I would go to house parties with all of his twentysomething friends and we’d have drinks at home instead of going to bars. The age gap didn’t seem significant until we had been together a few months and I thought about meeting his parents – I was nervous they would think I was too old for him. But they were lovely.
"My daughter was a bit shocked but they are like friends. She isn’t ever going to see Lee as a father figure but I’m glad they get on.
"I don’t feel I mother Lee. He knows his own mind. The only time I notice the difference is when I put on my Eighties music and Lee doesn’t recognise any of it! Or when he says a new phrase I’ve never heard of."
Lee says: “Our relationship doesn’t feel much different to those I’ve had in the past, other than Leyla is more emotionally stable. I realised we had the same values.”
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10 YEAR AGE GAP
A DECADE divides Leanne and Michael Mannifield of Leeds. Michael, now 32 and a granite worktop fitter, was 18 and working in a bar when they first met. Support worker Leanne, 42, says:
"I was out with friends when I met Michael and he told me he was 21. I said I was 25 because I didn’t want my age to put him off.
"We both confessed our ages on our first date but it didn’t matter to either of us. Michael was charming for someone so young and mature for his age – although he was shocked I owned my own house. He didn’t even have a bank account!
Proof age is really just a number
"I had a full-time job and Michael was young and carefree. I’d be rushing getting ready for work and he’d ask for a lift to the gym as he couldn’t drive.
"My mum was shocked when I told her his age and friends said we wouldn’t last.
"We’re really happy and I often forget he’s ten years younger. His mates at work tease him and ask if I walk with a Zimmer frame. Michael and I are equals. He is my rock and our relationship is proof age really is just a number."
Michael says: “Leanne’s age has never been an issue and when we first got together I couldn’t believe an older woman would even look at me.
“I loved taking her out and when I introduced Leanne to my mates I felt proud. I still do. It makes me laugh when workmates joke about whether Leanne uses a Zimmer frame and 14 years on, I love her more than ever.”
10 YEAR AGE GAP
SOLICITOR Angela Lord, 36, from Manchester, has been with 26-year-old structural engineer Paul Matthewman for two years. Angela says:
"A friend of mine was one of his housemates so I was used to seeing him when I called round.
"I had a boyfriend at the time so didn’t think anything of it, although we would always have a chat and a laugh together.
"This was a few years back so Paul would have seemed a lot younger to me then. It wasn’t until I split with my then-boyfriend and bumped into Paul on a night out that romance blossomed.
"At the time, Paul was living in a house share and I was renting a swish apartment.
"The age difference has never been a problem – except when it comes to the housework. I’m not sure if it is an age thing or a man thing but when he moved in, I was constantly picking up after him.
"He’d leave wet towels on the bed, wouldn’t clean the bathroom and would drop clothes on the floor.
"He’s becoming a lot better but I still think in the year we have been living together he has only changed the sheets once.
He's not set in his ways like older men
"There are lots of positives to being with a younger man, though. I’m young for my age and I wouldn’t want to date someone who didn’t want to do things I enjoy like holidaying in Ibiza and going to festivals.
"He isn’t set in his ways like many older men – I can mould him and he is open to suggestions. And even though he can be rubbish at housework, he does most of the cooking and looks after me when I am exhausted from work.
"Nobody ever notices that there is an age gap and some people even think that I’m the younger one.
I’m not concerned with marriage and I’m not ready for kids and neither is Paul, so there’s no pressure. It all works really well for us."
Paul says: “I feel we are equal in the relationship, we are two very independent people. I don’t think it crosses my friends’ minds there is an age gap – and I doubt they are bothered either way.”
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