Kristin Cavallari’s relationship with a man 13 years younger than her marks a growing trend of women in Hollywood dating younger men.
Cavallari and her new man, social media star Mark Estes, both posted about their romance on social media last week, with Cavallari writing, “He makes me happy.”
Estes also shared a video to his TikTok account, showing them sharing a kiss with the caption, “Ready to fall.”
Damona Hoffman, dating coach and author of “F the Fairy Tale,” says the “Laguna Beach” star’s new relationship makes sense.
Kristin Cavallari went Instagram official with Mark Estes. They have a 13-year age gap. (Kristin Cavallari Instagram)
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“Kristin Cavallari ended a seven-year marriage just a few years ago, and as a busy entrepreneur and a mom of three, it makes sense that she’d be looking for a sense of freedom in her new relationship,” Hoffman told Fox News Digital.
“Based on her social media posts, it seems like she and her new guy, Mark Estes, are aligned in their relationship goals right now. They’re having fun and seeing the world together. And whether there’s a future in the relationship or not, I wish more people could value relationships for a season as well as for a lifetime.”
Celebrity matchmaker Alessandra Conti isn’t quite as optimistic about the couple’s chances.
“In my professional opinion, having matched thousands of couples over the past 13 years, this is a major age gap, and I do not foresee this pair going the distance,” Conti told Fox News Digital.
Cavallari was married to Jay Cutler for seven years. (Tammie Arroyo/Variety via Getty Images)
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“A 24-year-old male does not even have his prefrontal cortex fully developed; this occurs at 25 for most males. The early 20s for a majority of men, especially those in or on the fringes of the Hollywood scene, is rife with exploration, developing themselves, discovering their purpose and gathering experience dating.
“Kristin is 37 years old, has three children, and although she lives an exciting life, her priorities are extremely different than a 24-year-old with very few responsibilities. Initially, this will be an exciting relationship for the two, but, ultimately, I believe it will fail based on differences in priorities and life stages.”
Still, Cavallari is ignoring any negativity about her relationship.
She recently joked about the age gap in a video shared on her TikTok, lip-syncing to a popular remixed sound found on the app about being arrested.
To drive her point home, she wrote in the caption, “When they’re all up in arms that [I’m] dating a 24-year-old. Andddd?”
Cavallari poked fun about her age gap with Estes in a recent TikTok video. (Rich Fury/Getty Images for ACM)
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“Of course, if the tables were turned and he was twelve years older, no one would bat an eyelash,” Hoffman noted. “Now, women have more earning power and choice in relationships than ever before, and that has led to a rewrite of dating rules which were long overdue for an update.”
Age gap relationships with an older woman and younger man are also getting attention in Hollywood productions.
A new movie starring Anne Hathaway, “The Idea of You,” features the Oscar winner getting caught in a steamy romance with a boy band member played by Nicholas Galitzine.
Based on a novel by the same name, the story follows Solène (Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet, according to the official synopsis from Amazon.
Anne Hathaway plays an older woman who falls for a boy band member, played by Nick Galitzine, in the new film “The Idea of You.” (Amazon)
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In the trailer, Hathaway says, “I’m too old for you,” to which Galitzine says, “No you’re not,” and the two share a passionate kiss.
“Older women and younger men relationships have been trending lately as dating dynamics have shifted, and younger men have had more access to older women through social media, dating apps and other online communities,” Hoffman said.
“Sex drive peaks for men in their 20s, while it peaks for women in their 30s. So, it makes sense that single women might seek out younger partners to match their libido.”
Cavallari is just one of the recent examples of an older woman/younger man relationship working well.
Heidi Klum and Tom Kaulitz
Heidi Klum said people dissing her and her husband’s 16-year age gap is “out of spitefulness.” (Getty Images)
Heidi Klum, 50, and her husband Tom Kaulitz, 34, have been married since 2019.
In a recent interview with Glamour Germany, Klum brushed off the negativity she’s faced over their relationship.
“I think it’s often just spitefulness,” she told the outlet. “Perhaps many people also think I’ve had too much luck in life. I have a great job, I get to travel the world, I can buy expensive things. And now I’ve also got myself such a great man.”
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Klum addressed how she responds to people’s questions about their age gap.
“I’m 50 and no longer 20,” she said. “I’m not a young girl who hasn’t experienced anything yet or has no idea about life. Time won’t stand still for me, and Tom will never catch up with me. I’ll always be 16 years older, and I’m aware of that.
“The old adage that ‘age is just a number’ is true in certain elements of compatibility. When it comes to physical attraction, age is not a major determining factor, and men in their 20s can be very attracted to women in their 30s, etc. Age is also just a number when it comes to personality compatibility; life experiences and maturity levels are not determined by a person’s age.”
Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas are 10 years apart in age, but she said “people think about it a lot more than I do.” (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Nick Jonas, 31, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, 41, have been married since 2018, sharing one daughter, born in 2022.
Chopra Jonas told “Today” in April 2023 that when it comes to their 10-year age gap, “people think about it a lot more than I do.”
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She did admit, “I didn’t give it much of a chance because I was like, ‘He’s 25 years old. He’s a rockstar. I want to get married, I want to settle down, I want to have a baby.’ I was 35 at the time.”
After their first date in 2018, they were married seven months later.
“I wanted stability, and I didn’t give Nick enough credit until I went out with him on our first date. We spent the whole evening together, and I realized my husband is just like an old soul. He’s stability in human form,” she said.
Joan Collins and Percy Gibson
Joan Collins is 90 and her fifth husband, Percy Gibson, is 58. They have been married since 2002. (Shane Anthony Sinclair/WireImage)
“Dynasty” star Joan Collins and her fifth husband, Percy Gibson, are 32 years apart in age, but Collins pays it no real attention.
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“First of all, we were great pals before we got married,” she told Fox News Digital last year. “We worked together on a play. … We enjoyed each other’s company. We hung out together. And we saw each other the following year. We wrote love letters. It was a gradual thing. And we realized that we were very much on the same wavelength.”
Collins, 90, and Gibson, 58, married in 2002. She dismissed the critics, saying age is “just a number,” and noting it’s “never too late” to find love at any stage in life.
Cher and Alexander Edwards
Cher and Alexander Edwards at Paris Fashion Week 2024. They have a 40-year age gap. (Jonas Gustavsson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Cher and her partner, Alexander Edwards, have a 40-year age gap, one that the “Turn Back Time” singer often finds room to joke about.
“Sometimes, I’m talking to him, and he has no idea who I’m talking about,” she told Extra in 2023. “The other day, I said, ‘Do you know who, I don’t know, Clark Gable, [is]?’ Somebody said, ‘Yes, of course,’ but most of my references … he’ll look at me and go, ‘I wasn’t born yet.’”
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Despite the occasional mix-up, Cher said, “I hate to talk about how happy I am, but no, we have a great time together.”
The couple first went public in November 2022 after meeting at Paris Fashion week a few months earlier.
Cher joked that sometimes Edwards doesn’t get her references and tells her “I wasn’t born yet.” (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Warner Music)
“I hate when people say people are special, but lots of people say I’m special, so I can say that he’s special,” he told People magazine.
“No matter what happens, I love being with him. He makes me laugh, and we have fun. What I learned is that it’s never too late. If you wrote out all the statistics, you would go, ‘Well, this is doomed.’ But we’ve been together a year, and if it was just a year, it would’ve been worth it. I’ve had the best time.”
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But not all romances with wide age gaps find their happily ever after.
Conti explained that as often as people say “age is just a number,” it can also be “a destructive statement if two individuals are unaligned with their major life goals, which is why many May/December relationships fail.”
Hoffman agreed, saying, “Many times in an age gap relationship, the couple can be mismatched in their relationship goals based on where they are in their life. For example, a younger man might want children, while an older woman might have children already or have passed their child-bearing window.
“Or an older partner might be ready for retirement while a younger partner is still working long hours to grow their career. In those cases, an age gap will usually present an issue, but if both parties are in the same stage of life or aligned on their relationship goals, they can make it work.”
Here are some famous age gap couples that did not last.
Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello
Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara divorced last year, and Vergara recently revealed it was because “he wanted to have kids, and I didn’t want to be an old mom.” (Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello’s age difference was small, with only four years between the two, yet it still played a role in their divorce when it came to having children.
“I’m newly divorced from my second husband [Manganiello], who I was with for 10 years. My marriage broke up because my husband was younger,” Vergara, 51, admitted to the Spanish newspaper, El País.
“He wanted to have kids, and I didn’t want to be an old mom. I feel it’s not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but that’s not for me anymore.”
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Vergara continued to explain that she had her son at the young age of 19. He is now 31, and she is ready to be a “grandmother, not a mother.”
“When it comes to wanting or not wanting children, age is not just a number,” Conti explained. “Biologically speaking, women can only have children up to a certain age without freezing their eggs or undergoing IVF.
“Age is also a factor because a man in his early 20s may not desire children but may change his mind once he hits his 30s or 40s. And then it is an impossibility unless the couple has prepared for that potential. For Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, Sofia not wanting to have children was cited as the primary purpose for their split, as Joe decided that he longed to create a family.”
Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore began dating when he was 25 and she was 41. (Amanda Edwards/WireImage)
Following her divorce from her second husband, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore began dating and later married Ashton Kutcher, when she was 41 and he was 25.
They married in 2005, and Kutcher became a stepdad to Moore’s daughters from her marriage to Willis — Rumer, Tallulah and Scout. The couple later separated in 2011 and finalized their divorce in 2013.
Years after their breakup, Kutcher spoke about suddenly becoming a stepfather at a young age, barely older than Moore’s daughters.
“I was 26, bearing the responsibility of an 8-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. That’s how some teen parents must experience their 20s,” he told Esquire in 2023. “They were awesome then, and they’re awesome now.”
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He also spoke about a miscarriage early in their relationship.
“Losing a kid that you think you’re going to have, and that close to thinking you’re going to have a kid, is really, really painful,” Kutcher said. “Everyone deals with that in different ways.
“I love kids. I wouldn’t have gotten married to a woman that had three kids if I didn’t love kids. The idea of having another kid would have been incredible. For whatever reason, I had to have that experience.”