00:00 This is 29-year-old Aaron. He fell in love with 66-year-old Michael.
00:05 Aaron has a self-confessed type when it comes to dating.
00:08 Everyone knows that I am into older men.
00:11 This has led to a high level of scepticism surrounding their marriage.
00:15 People will be like, "Oh, he's still a gold digger."
00:17 From, I think, TikTok.
00:18 You know, your daddy issues.
00:20 Today, Aaron's friend is sharing his doubts about their relationship.
00:23 One thing you should know about Aaron is that he likes to play the field.
00:29 So when he said that they're monogamous, I just thought, "Absolute bulls***."
00:34 And you hear a lot of people saying, "Oh, he's working hard to get his name in the will."
00:39 I'm Aaron. This is my husband, Michael.
00:44 And we have a 37-year age gap in our relationship.
00:48 I am 29 years old.
00:49 And I'm 66 years old.
00:52 So we met in New York. I was actually working over on an internship.
00:56 And I was lucky enough to run into this guy.
00:59 Run into?
01:00 Well, to put it bluntly, you know, we messaged each other on Grindr.
01:04 Initially, it was just a plan. It was meant to be a hookup.
01:07 But one thing led to another, and, you know...
01:09 Now we're married.
01:10 Now we're married.
01:11 I was very wary about his age.
01:14 But, you know, he's talked to me on so many qualities and traits that I look for.
01:18 He's just, like, so hot. Like, easy on the eye, so to say.
01:22 So I'm kind of, like, living in dreamland the whole time here.
01:25 [laughter]
01:26 You know?
01:27 We texted each other back and forth for about two and a half years.
01:33 He asked me to come to Ireland. It was before the pandemic.
01:37 And we had a great time.
01:40 And we made plans to see each other again.
01:43 And, you know, things were just getting worse. We were closing up.
01:46 And I just decided, you know, if anything happened, there's only one place I want to be.
01:50 And that was, you know, Aaron.
01:52 After spending two months in a room with each other, ten hours a day,
01:57 I asked him to get married.
01:59 So this is our wedding album.
02:02 I love this.
02:03 Yeah, it's a very good photo.
02:04 I remember being in bed with Mike, and when he proposed,
02:10 honestly, I was lost for words because it was the furthest thing from my mind.
02:14 Surprisingly, it was the easiest decision of my life.
02:18 My relationship history is I tried with girls.
02:21 When I was younger, faking to be straight, I was always into older men.
02:25 I'm physically attracted to older men.
02:27 So that was kind of when it became official. People were like, "Right, he is gay."
02:30 I can't basically get married to an older gay man and not be gay.
02:35 So that's when I came out.
02:36 I suppose the question that would come to people's minds straight away would be like,
02:41 "Oh, this must be your son."
02:42 They'd be like, "Oh, this must be your son."
02:44 "Oh, no, that's my husband."
02:45 There's a gym in the building we work out in downstairs.
02:48 I think we were doing push-ups or something.
02:51 So occasionally, we talk to people, and this guy asked.
02:56 I don't know how he started.
02:57 I think he came over admiring your physique.
02:59 I mean, who wouldn't?
03:01 I would do the same.
03:02 But I think then he was asking, "Oh, is this your son?"
03:05 Yeah.
03:06 And I was there like, "Oh!"
03:08 If you kind of got offended by these situations,
03:11 I mean, look, I don't think people are purposely like, "Oh, they must be father and son."
03:14 I think it's just an assumption, which is a fair assumption
03:17 because it's not your typical relationship by looking in anyway.
03:22 We blog kind of geared towards age gap relationships,
03:26 so obviously, we get some negative feedback.
03:29 Like referring to your daddy issues, your gold digger,
03:33 which can be a little annoying sometimes.
03:35 Right, so here is two from TikTok.
03:40 You know, "Daddy pays my bills."
03:42 And then other comments like, "How much is in the bank?"
03:45 It's kind of funny being called a gold digger
03:47 because, like, honestly, first of all, like, I didn't choose to be gay.
03:51 I didn't want to make life harder on myself.
03:53 Then I wouldn't go one step further and, like, choose to be into older guys.
03:57 There's kind of assumptions about age gap relationships,
04:00 but I can't do anything about that.
04:02 I'm authentically into older men.
04:05 The only thing that bothers me about it is that I work really hard
04:09 and I'm lucky to be in a good job and I'm lucky to be able to make good money.
04:13 But the thing is, I realize that I could be, to say, earning a million salary a year.
04:18 People will still comment and say, "Oh, gold digger, I could be making more money than Michael."
04:21 It's like, it just discredits my life a little bit.
04:24 The thought that somebody is going to like you or be attracted to you for your money
04:31 is just kind of foreign to me.
04:33 They're hostile people and they've been hurt by somebody.
04:35 It's sad. They're just bitter, sad people.
04:37 But, look, honestly, it's more positively supportive rather than negative,
04:42 which is what makes us keep continuing to do it.
04:45 If it wasn't positive feedback, we wouldn't do it.
04:48 So our friend Luke is going to call over.
04:50 So Luke is one of my best mates.
04:52 We've chatted about the relationship, but there's parts we haven't,
04:55 because, you know, I've never said to Luke, like, you know,
04:59 "I want your real thoughts here."
05:02 One thing you should know about Aaron is that he likes to play the field.
05:11 One of the weird affinities that we had that kind of brought us together
05:15 is that we were young twinks on the scene, kind of Bonnie and Clyde or Talman and Louise.
05:23 When I very first found out about Aaron and Michael,
05:25 I didn't think much of it other than, like, another one of Aaron's f***ing escapades.
05:31 Aaron sends over the pictures of Mike, and I was like, "Oh, right, very good.
05:36 He looks rich."
05:38 You definitely come across people that, like, will say Aaron's got daddy issues.
05:44 "Oh, he's working hard to get his name in the will."
05:46 It was when they, like, emerged out of a cocoon after one of our major lockdowns
05:51 and announced over, like, Facebook Messenger,
05:56 along with a photo of engagement rings, only four months into their relationship.
06:01 Yeah, I had some reservations that somebody or both of them were going to get really hurt in a few months' time.
06:07 - Huh? - Hi.
06:09 - How are you? - Good to see you.
06:11 - Go, go. - Where's Mikey?
06:14 - He's just inside. - Hey, Mikey.
06:16 - Oh, how are you doing, Luke? - How are you?
06:19 - I'm good. - Come on.
06:21 I never asked you, so what was, like, going through your head, I suppose?
06:25 I was like, "God, one or both of them is going to get really hurt."
06:29 - (LAUGHS) - Yeah.
06:31 You've got this, like, guy who's (BLEEP)--
06:33 like, he's already got his life set up for himself in Manhattan.
06:37 There's, like, supposedly just dropping everything to come over to Dublin
06:42 to Aaron, who, like, literally, like, can't go a morning without, like,
06:47 - getting the leg over with somebody else. - (LAUGHTER)
06:50 I mean, surprised myself to a certain degree, but, I mean, to be honest,
06:55 I also just never felt like this about someone as well.
06:57 Well, first of all, I can't believe when you saw us together,
07:00 you didn't think it was real? I mean, you didn't think you couldn't tell
07:03 - how happy we were? - A lot of people are cynical.
07:06 Like, a lot of people think that Aaron's gold-digging.
07:11 Some people just like to pass judgment.
07:13 First question I get from all the people I meet at, "Are you guys monogamous?"
07:17 I remember, like, when you were having chats about it,
07:21 and you were, like, seemed pretty adamant about monogamy,
07:24 I was like, "Oh, God, here we go. This is the start of a big drama.
07:30 "Mike doesn't know what's coming."
07:33 And, again, I hate s***. He's proven me wrong, like...
07:36 I'm the best s*** person in this world. There's nobody better.
07:41 Why would I ever want to sleep with anybody else?
07:46 Has your scepticism disappeared yet?
07:49 No matter which way you look at it, you guys are an odd couple.
07:53 But you really, really work.
07:55 And it's great that my friend gets to be a better person
08:01 because of your existence.
08:03 Yeah, and I've gained a cute little friend as well.
08:08 What I love most about Mike, love his personality.
08:11 He's just my, like, crazy little husband that, like, has all his little quirks.
08:15 You've made me, like, just so comfortable in my own skin.
08:18 Waking up to him makes me better because I'm so happy every day.
08:22 [ding]
08:24 [silence]
08:27 [silence]
08:29 [silence]
08:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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