Anthony Kiedis‘ girlfriend, Eileen Kelly, defended her relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers musician, who is 33 years her senior.
In a recent essay for Vogue, Kelly, 30, addressed the “nuanced” experience of dating someone more than three decades older than her, claiming that the age difference is “either alarming or impressive, depending on who you ask.”
“It’s my first time dating someone significantly older, and sometimes I joke with friends that I’ve been missing out my whole life,” she wrote.
Kelly, who hosts the “Going Mental” podcast, acknowledged the perks that come with dating an older man.
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“There is something to be said for a man who’s simply had more time to get his s*** together, and my much older boyfriend seems genuinely excited to be with me — not like he’s biding his time before he can swipe for someone better,” she noted. “He is fully aware that he’s one lucky bastard.”
In the essay, Kelly recalled meeting the 63-year-old singer at a birthday party, so “the age gap didn’t register at first.”
“I had met someone interesting and magnetic; if anything, I assumed we’d just become friends,” she wrote.
As the couple became more serious, Kelly realized “how differently people respond to age-gap relationships based on who occupies which side of the gap.” She claimed older women are often praised for dating younger men, but older men are shamed for their relationships with younger women.
“An older man is reflexively labeled ‘creepy’ and ‘gross,’ while the woman ‘must have daddy issues’ or must be a gold-digger,’” she continued. “Is it really so difficult to imagine that connection can exist across generations, and that two people of different ages can find something real in each other?”
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Kelly acknowledged that Kiedis has “been in several” age-gap relationships. He previously dated model Wanessa Milhomem when he was 52 and she was 23. Kiedis was also linked to model Helena Vestergaard when she was 19. The musician shares a child, Everly Bear, with model Heather Christie, who was more than 20 years his junior.
“I have my own money, my own career, and I have my own home,” Kelly continued. “I love my boyfriend, but I’m not at risk of losing everything if we break up.”
Despite receiving “shocking [and] unsolicited commentary” on her relationship, Kelly called her life with Kiedis “comparatively unremarkable,” adding, “[We are] two people doing the ongoing, unremarkable work of moving through life together.”
