GENERATION GAME
Soap age-gap romances – from Kym Marsh and new lover, 29, to Corrie star who proposed to OnlyFans model 40 years younger
One star revealed her unconventional marriage to toyboy hubby saw them live apart for nine years
IT was only three months ago that Kym Marsh happily declared her son was the only man she needs in her life - but now the actress has revealed she has found love again.
Former Corrie star Kym, 48, has fallen for her 29-year-old theatre show co-star Samuel Thomas, who is 19 years her junior.
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After sharing her new romance on social media, she swiftly shut down one cruel troll who said that he looked like her eldest son David, who was born the same year as Samuel.
Kym shot back on Instagram: "Do one."
The couple met working together on 101 Dalmations: The Musical, with the actress calling him her “soulmate.”
Their unexpected romance comes after the actress split from her third husband Scott Ratcliff, 35, last year.
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Samuel also posted: "I didn’t expect you, but here you are. I love you."
And Kym, who is also mum to Emilie, 27, and 13-year-old Polly, isn’t the only soap star to believe age is just a number when it comes to their love life.
Michelle Collins
EastEnders star Michelle, 62, revealed last month that a psychic told her she would meet 'the love of her life' as she got close to her 50th birthday, and went on to meet her toyboy husband Mike Davidson, now 39, just months later.
The actress - who returned to the soap as fan favourite Cindy Beal last year following a 25-year hiatus - met Mike in 2012 after being set up on a date with him by her niece.
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Speaking in 2016, Michelle admitted she hated the word cougar, often used to describe an older woman who dates younger men.
She said: "Mike is 22 years younger than me and I'm regarded as a predator. It drives me mad. People call him my toyboy beau. He's nearly 35, for God's sake."
Kym Marsh reveals new romance as she hits out at trolls
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She added: "I laugh about it now but it is annoying. And I hate that word cougar. I can't stand it. I find it so demeaning. A cougar is a predator going around looking for young flesh. I'm certainly not like that."
The couple announced their engagement in April 2022 before tying the knot in August that year. Michelle, who has a daughter Maia Rose, 27, with her ex-partner Fabrizio Tassalini, looked stunning in her wedding jumpsuit.
Speaking last month, the actress said: "I thought it would never happen; I just didn't think I'd ever get married. But Mike and I will have been married for two years in August.”
Maisie Smith
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Former EastEnders star Maisie and The Wanted singer Max George have had to repeatedly defend their relationship over their 13-year age gap.
Speaking about being trolled last year, Maisie, who played Tiffany Butcher in the BBC soap, said: “If it wasn’t that, it would be something else.
“People don’t understand what goes on behind closed doors in a relationship, and I think they also forget that I’m a consenting 21-year-old woman who’s actually been working longer than Max!”
And Max, 35, said in 2022: "It never enters my mind. Maisie has already done so many things that I'm in awe of – I look up to her."
The couple met when they both competed on the 2020 Strictly Come Dancing series, with their friendship blossoming into romance in the summer of 2022.
Maisie, who lives with Max in Manchester, said of their relationship last month: “He is definitely The One. He’s just perfect. We are very, very happy.
Chris Quinten
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Chris shot to fame as Gail Platt’s murdered husband Brian Tisley on ITV soap Coronation Street. After leaving the soap in 1989, he moved into strip club management.
He now runs The Secret Lounge in Hammersmith, West London, where he met fiancée Robyn Delabarre, after she auditioned for a job as a lap dancer at the gentlemen’s club.
Chris, 66, and Robyn, who is 40 years his junior, enjoyed a whirlwind seven-month romance before he proposed at her 21st birthday party in 2019.
Defending their relationship on This Morning that year, Robyn, who is now said to be raking in a fortune from her £6-a-month OnlyFans account, where she sells exclusive sexy snaps to her followers, said: “Chris is much older but we had such a nice connection we just got on well, we spoke a lot.
I hate that word cougar. I can't stand it. I find it so demeaning. A cougar is a predator going around looking for young flesh. I'm certainly not like that
Michelle Collins
“[My parents] found it really difficult at first. The big age gap. My mum is 38 and my dad’s 40. Now they’re so supportive of me.”
Chris then joked: “I could be your grandad!”
And he has said previously: “We don’t care what anyone thinks. All we know is we’re in love.”
The dad of three grown up daughters now wants to start a family with his young lover, saying: “I can't wait to have a baby with her. One, the baby will be beautiful and two, she'd be the best mum in the world.”
Cheryl Fergison
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Actress Cheryl played Heather Trott on EastEnders before the much-loved character was dramatically killed by Ben Mitchell in 2012. And her life has been as interesting off-screen too.
Cheryl, 58, married second husband Yassine Al-Jermoni, who is 21 years her junior, in 2011 after the pair met online a year earlier.
But the actress, who has a son Alex, 24, from her first husband, revealed in April she spent the first nine years of their marriage apart from her Moroccan husband due to him struggling to get a UK visa.
Cheryl said: “We try to keep our business private but yes financially it can be a strain to get these visas.
We have had things thrown at us that should never have been thrown at us; things that would have broken others. But we got through it
Cheryl Fergison
"But we’re here now, we’re in Blackpool - the Vegas of the north! - and we’re settled."
And speaking last year, she defended criticism over their relationship, saying: "Obviously there's always speculation when somebody in the public eye meets somebody else, whoever it is.
"But we have had things thrown at us that should never have been thrown at us; things that would have broken others.
";But we got through it. We kept our heads down, we ploughed on. And we’re still here."
Tamzin Outhwaite
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Former EastEnders actress Tamzin has been dating boyfriend Tom Child, 33, who is 20 years her junior, since 2020 and has been forced to shut down criticism over their age gap
Speaking in 2020, she said: “A woman being very sure of what she wants or what she is in her life doesn’t make her a cougar, because there are two people involved in this relationship.
“Not all men want younger women, that’s another thing. When you find someone you connect with, what, because you’re different ages you shouldn’t do that?'”
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Tamzin, 53, who has two daughters Florence, 16, and Marnie Mae, 12, with her ex husband, actor Tom Ellis, 45, also said in 2022: "I get the odd strange comment, saying, 'You look old enough to be his mother.'
"Which makes me want to say, 'Well, I am old enough to be his mother, but I’m not!'"
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