A gran who is using dating apps at 70 says she looks and feels decades younger – and is having the best sex of her life.
Tina Pemberton, from London, says she’s living like a teenager again.
The grandma-of-three has been swiping right, dating and even spicing up her sex life after leaving her husband of 34 years.
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She says her later-in-life sexual awakening has even made her look and feel “ageless”.
“I’m living life as a teenager,” Tina told Need To Know.
“I embrace every new thing and I don’t feel old at all.
“I feel ageless and I actually think I’ve become a happier person.
“I look better than I did 20 years ago.”
Tina says the biggest surprise has been rediscovering her sex life and just how good it can still be.
She said: “They say as you get older you dry up a bit but I met someone who knew exactly what to do.
“He used lubricants and everything to make me feel good. It worked and I could not believe it.
“I was on cloud nine. I hop-skipped, danced, jumped everywhere – it really does work.”
Tina, who once ran a restaurant in Norfolk before retiring, says every woman deserves to feel good no matter their age.
She said: “You see women on the train and they look miserable and you think – I know what they need.
“Every woman needs that at some point.”
Tina is now on a mission to break the taboo around older women and intimacy.
She says society is far too quick to dismiss older women, especially when it comes to love, sex and dating.
She said: “I just find it very silly.
“People see your age on a dating app and don’t even consider going out with you.
“Why do they think that a human being should change their feelings?
“Forget about the wrinkles and think about the twinkles.”
After 34 years of marriage, Tina realised something was missing and made the brave decision to start over eight years ago.
She said: “I left my husband and I came to London from the countryside.
“There was big age gap – he was 18 years older – and it suddenly didn’t work.
“I was full of energy, wanting to do things, and living in the country didn’t do it for me.
“I really wanted to be more doing things again rather than living my life as a pensioner.”
Tina ended her marriage, left her quiet life in Norfolk and moved to London to live with her 31-year-old son Josh.
She was enjoying nights at the theatre and going out with friends when someone suggested she try online dating.
She said: “I started getting matches and going out on dates.
“I had never been on dating apps in my life.”
But it wasn’t long before she found herself with a busy social life and plenty of stories to tell.
Tina says she’s dated men older, younger and her own age – but not all of them have impressed her.
She said: “It’s been interesting to see how men my age are still playing games.
“I hadn’t dated since my 20s and I was quite shocked.
“They don’t mature; they just still expect the same things.
“One guy met me and immediately grabbed hold of my hand.
“I didn’t even know him.”
Some of Tina’s other dates have been memorable for all the wrong reasons.
She said: “There was one I spoke to a long time on the phone before I met him for a coffee.
“When I saw him sitting waiting for me, I just knew it was wrong – I didn’t even want to go there.
“I had nothing to say to him and I’m a very chatty person. It was really embarrassing.”
Tina says there was one man who even brought up his digestion problems over dinner.
She recalled: “We were having dinner and he started talking about his bowel movements.
“I don’t really want to know.
“Constipation and this, that or the other – it really put me off my food.”
Tina has now been on dozens of dates but says the most meaningful connections have happened off the apps.
She said: “Funnily enough, the people I’ve actually had something to do with have not been through dating apps but through people who introduced us.
“A couple led to things and we went out once or twice.
“It’s strange but exciting.”
Tina decided to sign up to TikTok to talk about her best and worst dates and to encourage other older women to start dating again.
Some dates fizzled out and others ghosted her but Tina says she learned not to take it personally.
She said: “That’s when I started recording my stuff on TikTok last year.
“Talking about bad dates and funny ones.
“I get ghosted. They can talk to me for a week then disappear.
“It can be offensive but I’ve grown to understand it and I do the same now.”
Tina says she is open to meeting someone special, just not on anyone else’s timeline.
She said: “Maybe I don’t want someone full-time or to get married again, but I would like to find a new lover – I’m not giving up on that.
“I know when it’s right, it’s right.”
Tina hopes that by being open about her experiences, she can help other women feel empowered too.
She added: “Younger women are very inspired.
“They say, ‘I want to be like you at your age.’“
Tina’s openness about sex led to her becoming one of Lovehoney’s first ‘Queen Bees’ – a senior sex advisor on a brand’s new expert panel aimed at breaking stigma around sex and ageing.
Now she is using that platform to encourage other women to embrace their desires without shame.
She said: “My advice would be to not listen to anyone who tells you that you shouldn’t go out and date, have a good time and have a sexual [relationship].
“I’m trying to break the taboo of older women enjoying sex and having a love life.
“It’s very healthy – it’s very good for endorphins, good for everything.”
Now 70, Tina says she’s not slowing down any time soon.
She added: “I don’t feel old at all.
“I would never have thought this would happen to me, and that’s why it’s so surprising.
“I’m surprising myself every day and I think that’s the best thing about it.
“They say good things come to those who wait.”
