Celebs Who Married People Younger Than Their Kids

Nicolas Cage is well-versed in matrimony considering he's been married five times, with exes including such familiar names as Patricia Arquette and the late Lisa Marie Presley. In 2021, Cage wed his fifth wife Riko Shibata in a modest ceremony in a Las Vegas hotel, about a year after they met in Japan. "It's true, and we are very happy," Cage said in a statement to People, confirming the two had tied the knot. As Cage's rep explained, the date of the nuptials — February 16 — had deep significance. "The date was chosen to honor the birthday of the groom's late father," said the rep. "The bride wore a handmade Japanese Bridal Kimono from Kyoto that required three layers."

In September 2022, the newlyweds welcomed a daughter they named August Francesca. This marked the third child for Cage, who was 58 years old when the child was born, and the first for 27-year-old Shibata. Cage is also the father of two sons, Weston Coppola Cage, born in 1990, and Kal-El Coppola, who arrived in 2005 — making Cage's oldest son a few years older than his wife.

Cage made sure to alleviate concerns about the age gap between him and Shibata. Interviewed by Flaunt, Cage was quick to dismiss any stereotypical notion of a young Asian wife acting subserviently toward a husband 30 years her senior. "That's not me and Riko," Cage insisted, "her getting me coffee, waiting on me, or some kind of servitude. And that's not been my experience with other Asian women, abroad or here." 

David Foster is a firm believer in the institution of marriage — which is evident from the fact that he's headed to the altar no less than five times. Most recently, the acclaimed music producer married "America Idol" alum Katharine McPhee, with the lavish wedding taking place in London in 2019. In 2021, the couple welcomed a son, marking the sixth child for Foster (and McPhee's first), having already raised daughters Allison, Amy, Sara, Erin, and Jordan. All but one of Foster's daughters (Jordan, the youngest) is older than McPhee, who turned 39 in 2023. 

In a January 2023 interview with People, Foster — then 73 — addressed the reality of being a septuagenarian raising a toddler. "At this point in my life, it's different again," he said. "Not better or worse, just different. I still work, I'm still gone a lot, but maybe the time is a little more precious to me because I got more runway behind me than I have ahead of me now."

The 34-year age difference hasn't been an issue for the couple. In fact, the oft-divorced Foster told People that he'd identified 10 specific factors that can wreck a marriage, including geography, money, and infidelity. "Only one of the 10 is an age difference," he explained. "So if we feel like we have the other nine right, that we're really solid on the other nine, the one is not going to break us up."

When broadcaster Larry King (who died in January 2021 at the age of 87) walked down the aisle with Shawn Southwick, he'd been married eight times before (twice to the same woman). "I got married a lot," he acknowledged to People in 2020, discussing his recent decision to divorce Southwick. "But in my head, I'm not a marrying guy. When I grew up, nobody lived together. If you fell in love, you got married. And so I married the ones that I loved. But what I loved at 20 is not what I loved at 30, and what I loved at 30 is not what I loved at 40." He also admitted the 26-year age gap between him and Southwick became a factor in their divorce. "We had a big age difference and that eventually takes its toll," he said of Southwick, who was 60 at the time. 

A few months after that interview, King faced the dual heartbreak of losing two of his five children within weeks of each other. King's son, Andy, was 65 — five years older than Southwick — when he died of a heart attack, while his daughter, Chaia, died at 51 shortly after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

King died before he and Southwick were able to finalize their divorce, which led to complications with divvying up his estate when she contested a handwritten will and insisted the two were on the verge of reconciling.

William Shatner is a Canadian treasure and sci-fi icon, and he's been married and divorced four times. Shatner is also the father of three daughters, all resulting from his first marriage. His oldest daughter, Leslie, celebrated her 64th birthday in August 2022 — which makes her several months older than her dad's fourth ex-wife, Elizabeth Martin.

Shatner filed for divorce from Martin in 2019, and the exes finalized their divorce in 2020 after 18 years of marriage, with Shatner reportedly paying her a lump-sum settlement of $2 million. Asked if he was saddened by the divorce, Shatner — who turned 92 in March 2023 — offered a jaunty response — "Nothing makes me sad at this age," he told The Mirror.

Interestingly, three years later, Shatner and his ex-wife got back together. "My wife ... she is the zest of life. She brings the flavour," Shatner said (referring to her as his spouse despite the divorce) in a January 2023 chat with The Mirror. In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Shatner revealed that he and his ex-wife were still living together in the same house. Asked to elaborate on their relationship, he replied, "That's a long story. I don't know if this is an appropriate time to get into the reasoning, but I've done something really nice," he said. When asked if they'd gotten "un-divorced," Shatner said cryptically, "Well, that's always hanging there and that makes the relationship really good. Maybe that's the explanation and I've found the solution!"

Patrick Stewart divorced his first wife, Sheila Falconer, in 1990, after they'd been married for 24 years. That marriage produced two children, born in 1967 and 1972. Sir Patrick — who's famously played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and its various spinoffs and Professor Charles Xavier in the "X-Men" franchise — eventually remarried, tying the knot with producer Wendy Neuss in 2000, before the two split up in 2003. In 2013, he married for a third time, walking down the aisle with jazz singer Sunny Ozell.

Some eyebrows were raised about the age of his new bride, who is 39 years younger than Stewart — and younger than both of his children. Perhaps most awkwardly, her father is five years younger than his son-in-law, who celebrated his 83rd birthday in July 2023. Stewart admitted in an interview with the Scottish Mail on Sunday that his wife's dad was initially "not thrilled" to see his daughter marrying someone so much older. However, he noted that the situation has led to some surreal moments. "He rings me up and says, 'Hey son, it's your father here,'" Stewart recalled. 

For Ozell, the 39-year age gap between the two has proven to be completely irrelevant. "He is so youthful and I guess I'm kind of an old worry wart so we bridge the gap," she explained. "It doesn't come up much. He's in better shape than me, which infuriates me."

Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner was married three times. He tied the knot with his third and final wife, Crystal Harris, on New Year's Eve in 2012, with the two remaining spouses until his death in 2017. At the time of the nuptials, the groom was 86, and the bride was 26, making for a sizable 60-year age gap.

Prior to that, Hef married Kimberly Conrad in 1989, when she was 26 and he was 63, with that marriage lasting until 2009, when he filed for divorce. That union produced two sons, Marston and Cooper. During his first marriage, to Mildred Williams (which lasted from 1949 until 1959), Hefner fathered two children, Christie and David; the former was born in 1952, the latter in 1955. As a result, Hefner managed to marry not just one woman younger than his oldest child, but two. 

In a statement she gave to People after Hefner's death in 2017, Harris downplayed the six-decade difference in their ages. "I felt how much he loved me," she said. "I loved him so much. I am so grateful. He gave me life. He gave me direction. He taught me kindness. I will feel eternally grateful to have been by his side, holding his hand, and telling him how much I love him. He changed my life, he saved my life. He made me feel loved every single day."