A woman married to someone 19 years older than her has hit back at trolls who accuse her of having “mummy issues”.
Olivia Reed shares her experience of love with a significant age gap with her 90,000 followers on TikTok, giving snippets of her daily life of wedded bliss with wife Kelly, 54.
But the 35-year-old has come up against harsh criticism as a result, with people online guessing Kelly is wealthy and acting as her “sugar mama” – a claim they both laugh off.
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The pair, who met online before moving across the country to be together and marrying within three months of their first date, have faced endless speculation.
“One of the biggest comments we get is that I must have mummy issues,” Olivia, a teacher in Maryland, US, told Need To Know.
“And that she [Kelly] must just want to be my mother.
“I have a great relationship with my mum!
“Kelly’s love language is acts of service, so she likes doing things for me.
“So sometimes people will interpret that as me needing some kind of mother figure, but people express love in different ways, and that’s her way.”
Kelly, who called the claim “gross”, said another misconception about their relationship is that she is wealthy and acting as a “sugar mama” to her wife.
She joked: “I wish! I wish I was rich.”
Olivia added: “We get these types of comments all the time: she must be with her for money, how much money does she have, sugar mama…
“We share finances and we make basically the same amount of money at both of our jobs.”
The duo, who like to “prove it’s never too late for your happy ending” with their content, said another common assumption they get is that this is “just a phase” for Olivia and that she will leave Kelly when she gets older.
Olivia said: “A lot of people like to say that because I was with men in the past, that this is just like an experiment for me and that I’ll get over it.
“Never going to happen!
“People say ‘the younger one’ is going to move on very quickly and that this won’t last because I’m so much younger.
“When you’re [Kelly] 80, someone said I’m going to just hit the road.”
Despite the critique, the couple has been going strong for nearly three years.
Olivia came out as a lesbian at 33, shortly before meeting Kelly, but is still subject to comments like “You just haven’t found the right man yet”, and heavy criticism of their age gap.
But in their day-to-day lives, they say the difference has never been an issue since connecting on Bumble in 2023.
Olivia said: “The age gap never really bothered us.
“We connected and got along so well that it never stood in our way or deterred us.
“The biggest difference we notice is the generational difference in technology like texting, but that’s really it.”
And that certainly didn’t stop them from progressing quickly, with them meeting in the flesh after one week of chatting, and immediately becoming a couple.
Olivia added: “We had one more date after that before she actually moved her life from Massachusetts to Maryland for us to move in together.
“That was March 2023, and we got married in June 2023.
“Neither of us is traditionally a big risk taker, so this was out of character.
“When you know, you know!”
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