'70s Heartthrobs Who Married Much Younger Women

Famous older men dating women significantly younger than them is a familiar headline. Whether it's a groupie, an employee, or a friend of a friend they're dating, older men who engage in these age-gap relationships are the subject of much controversial discourse. It's even become a meme in certain situations, such as the internet collectively leaning in on the joke that 51-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio won't date women under the age of 25. Back in the 1970s, however, age-gap relationships — especially those between famous rock stars or actors and their young girlfriends — were so commonplace that hardly anyone gave them a second thought.

Some 1970s heartthrobs, like Warren Beatty and Rod Stewart, had a revolving door of relationships before settling down with much younger women. Others, like Sylvester Stallone and Michael Douglas, nearly divorced their younger wives before changing their minds. And you may be surprised to find out which '70s icon has been married for 40 years and counting. Read on for a list of '70s dreamboats and their age-gap marriages.

Folk singer-songwriter Neil Young hit his artistic and commercial stride in the 1970s as he started a solo career apart from his former gig with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. His 1972 album "Harvest,"  with hits like "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold," became the highest-selling record of the year. The actress Daryl Hannah, meanwhile, is famous for her starring roles in 1980s rom-coms such as "Splash" and "Steel Magnolias." The two were first linked in 2014 — the same year Young divorced his second wife, Pegi — and married in July 2018, as Young casually confirmed on his website.

Despite their 15-year age gap, Young and Hannah bonded over their shared passion for environmental conservation. "Neil's biggest passion in life is the environment. Daryl is the exact same," a friend told People after they married. "They bonded over their activism." The two led a march against the Keystone XL pipeline project in Washington, D.C., in 2014. Hannah has since directed several of Young's music videos and a documentary of his 2023 tour, capturing moments like their dogs lying under Young's piano and tour-bus conversations with Young's driver. "So many performers put on a persona, and Neil just does not have that quality at all," Hannah said, per BBC. "Having spent so much time with him, my perception is that he's completely guileless. He has a lot of warmth and innocence, so I wanted to show that."

Actor and director Warren Beatty was known not only for his prestige films and good looks but also for his high-profile relationships: He was linked to everyone from Joan Collins to Diane Keaton to Madonna throughout the '60s and '70s, and Carly Simon confirmed that the second verse of her hit song "You're So Vain" is about him. But Beatty settled down from his playboy ways when he met actress Annette Bening, whom he met when they had lunch together to discuss casting her as a co-lead in his 1991 film "Bugsy." Per the New York Post, Beatty called "Bugsy" director Barry Levinson afterward and said, "I love her, and I'm going to marry her." He added, "It took about 10 minutes [to fall in love with her]. Maybe five." They married in 1992, shortly after having their first child.

The couple doesn't shy away from discussing their age gap. "I've learnt valuable lessons about life from Warren. He's 21 years older than I am and we've always been at different stages of life. He's got a lot of experience. But we're very different in many ways," Bening told The Times in 2018. "The crucial thing is that while we want many of the same things in life, we've thrived because we approach things very differently. We continue to do very well together." The couple went on to have three more children. "​​I'm so much more interested in my wife and kids than anything else," Beatty told GQ in 2016, reflecting on his professional life and past dating history.

Action-movie stalwart Harrison Ford, who shot to fame in the '70s thanks to his roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, met actress Calista Flockhart at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards, where she was nominated for her titular role in "Ally McBeal." Though there had been rumors she threw a drink at him, Flockhart affirmed to Hello Magazine that it was the opposite: "We were having a conversation for maybe 20 minutes before the wine spilled, and the truth is, Harrison spilled the wine!" she said. They were married eight years later and are still going strong today, with Ford thanking "my extraordinary, beautiful wife Calista" after accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Actor Awards in 2026.

Flockhart dispelled any notion that their age gap affected their relationship. "It doesn't faze me. Sometimes I even say, 'Wow, I keep forgetting that he's 22 years older than me,'" she told Hello Magazine. "It doesn't factor into our relationship at all." The two share a unique interest in aviation. Ford, who has a pilot's license, told People, "Calista likes the process [of flying], she likes what she sees from the air, she likes seeing me happy. I think a lot of it has to do with that she loves to see me doing something that I love."

Sylvester Stallone burst into the Hollywood scene with the 1976 film "Rocky," which he wrote and starred in. He cemented his legacy as an action-movie hero with the "Rocky," "Rambo," and "The Expendables" franchises. The actor was married to Sasha Czack, with whom he had two children, and Brigitte Nielsen before settling down with model Jennifer Flavin, who is 22 years his junior. They met at a Hollywood restaurant by chance. "I was in this dark restaurant, a few people. She came in and, whoa! Something happened," Stallone recalled on their reality show, "The Family Stallone," per People. "I just felt, like, this jolt, like — 'Oh, did we just have a minor earthquake or something?'"

An inside look at their marriage reveals some ups and downs over the course of their 29-year union; Stallone broke up with Flavin in 1994 via a six-page letter he sent by FedEx, and the couple announced a divorce in 2022, only to reconcile a month later. "That's the most insincere breakup you can get," Stallone said of his breakup letter in an interview with Sean Hannity. "It's like, you put it down in words 'cause you don't have the guts to do it face-to-face." The couple has also seemed to recover from their divorce scare, with Flavin posting a sweet message on Instagram for Stallone last year: "Every year is a blessing that we get to celebrate you and our beautiful family we created! I love you!" she wrote.

In 1978, Rod Stewart asked through song, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?," and millions of fans answered in the affirmative as the single matched the success of his breakthrough track, 1971's "Maggie May." Stewart was kept busy throughout the '80s and '90s with his marriages to Alana Stewart and Rachel Hunter, as well as raising his six children, before meeting his third wife, Penny Lancaster, in 1999 when she was a photography student taking snaps of one of his shows.

Along with their 26-year age gap, the couple learned to navigate their blended family as they introduced their two kids to Stewart's first six children. "I tiptoed very lightly. Because there were lots of personalities, and more importantly, there were children ranging from all ages," Lancaster said of bonding with her stepchildren, per People. "I just wanted to take my time, and it took a long time." Stewart added, "There is a maturity I may have taught Penny, and there is an honesty she has taught me."

Lancaster and Stewart were married in 2007 and, after nearly 20 years, know how to keep their spark alive. "We don't take each other for granted and make sure we have date nights together ... dinner, the theatre or whatever, doing the school run together and having an 'a deux' coffee on the way home, long romantic walks together," Lancaster told Best Magazine (per Fox News).

"Miami Vice" made Don Johnson a star in the '80s, but his career was built in the '70s, winning accolades for his role in "A Boy and His Dog." However, his personal life threatened to overshadow his professional success, with tales of his partying and substance use. His first two marriages to unknown women ended in quick annulments; he courted more controversy when he, then 27, married 18-year-old actress Melanie Griffith in 1976. Griffith opined she was mature enough to make that decision: "I was raised to be self-sufficient. I was one of those kids who said, 'If I can get to school by myself, and cook, and clean, and take care of the house while my mother's working, why can't I spend the night with my boyfriend?'" she told Vanity Fair in 1989.

Though Johnson and Griffith divorced a few months later, they reunited in 1989 after Griffith had a stint in rehab and leaned on Johnson, who was sober by then. "He said he'd support me all the way. That was such a turning point," she told Vanity Fair. "I talked to Don a lot while I was in rehab. And I think we fell in love again on the phone." They remarried that year and had their daughter, actress Dakota Johnson, but divorced in 1996.

Despite their ups and downs, Johnson and Griffith are on good terms: "We talk quite often," Johnson said on "Andy Cohen Live" in 2021, per OK Magazine. "When you have a child with someone — whether you're married or not — you're with that someone forever. And I'm okay with that."

Michael Douglas — son of acting legend Kirk Douglas — got his start in Hollywood with a starring role in the 1970s TV show "The Streets of San Francisco," as well as producing 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," for which he won an Academy Award. He effectively retired from his lengthy acting career in 2025, but his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, is still going, starring as Morticia Addams in Netflix's hit "Wednesday."

Douglas and Zeta-Jones, who are exactly 25 years apart and share the same birthday, met at a French film festival in the late '90s, though Douglas already had his eye on her. "I look at the catalogue and I see that 'Zorro' is coming the next night, so I ask my assistant, 'Can you find out if Catherine Zeta-Jones is coming? And is she coming alone and if I could have a drink with her,'" he told Variety. "The rest is history." The two celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in November 2025, with Zeta-Jones writing on Instagram, "I love you today as I did then. Thank you sweetheart."

The couple has navigated raising a son and daughter together, as well as Douglas' throat-cancer diagnosis in 2010 and a brief separation in 2013. At the end of the day, though, Zeta-Jones told the Telegraph, "We're just very good with one another, we respect each other, and I never really feel that he's 25 years older than me." She continued, "I remember people saying, 'When you're 50, he's going to be 75.' Well, that's just maths."

Paul McCartney is, of course, one-fourth of the legendary The Beatles, who had dozens of hit songs before McCartney started a solo career with the band Wings in the 1970s. McCartney had two notable marriages: The first was to Linda Eastman, whom he called "the love of my life" after she passed away in 1998, and his second marriage was to entrepreneur Heather Mills, which resulted in one of the most expensive celebrity divorces. McCartney found love again in Nancy Shevell, a businesswoman 17 years his junior whom he met in 2007. They married in 2011 in a ceremony attended by Ringo Starr and George Harrison's widow, Olivia. McCartney's fashion designer daughter Stella designed Shevell's wedding dress.

Although McCartney was constantly swarmed by Beatlemania-crazed fans early in his career, he insists that he has a low-key life with Shevell. "We're pretty much like any other normal couple!" he said, per People. "I'm always very happy to be the person Nancy relies on, and to be her strength when she goes through tough times." Shevell also doesn't find McCartney's celebrity or age to be a contentious factor in their marriage: "I don't find it stressful," she told The Times in 2008 when asked if it was difficult to be with someone so famous. "I'm a cancer survivor, I run a trucking company and I've got a 16-year-old to raise. That's stress." The two celebrated their 14th anniversary in October 2025; McCartney captioned a sweet black-and-white Instagram post, "Happy Anniversary to my lovely missus, Nancy – Paul."

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was well known for his antics, drug use, and arrests throughout the 1970s. Though he seemed to embody the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" attitude, he has undergone a lifestyle change in recent years, and fans may be surprised to learn he has been married for over 40 years. In 1979, he met model Patti Hansen on her 23rd birthday, and they married in 1983. Richards shared in his autobiography, "Life," a journal entry he wrote shortly after meeting Hansen: "Incredibly I've found a woman. A miracle! She is the most beautiful ... specimen in the WORLD," he wrote, per People. "But that ain't it! It certainly helps but it's her mind, her joy of life, and she thinks this battered junkie is the guy she loves."

Although there is a 12-year age gap between Richards and Hansen, they've found common ground. "We have had our trials; that's for sure. But on the whole, it's great," Hansen told Vogue. "We both have the same morals and background. We both come from working-class families." They share two daughters, who have said they idolize their parents' marriage. "We've been through a lot but the love is so strong and powerful that it carries us forever forward on a cloud of compassion and courage," Theodora Richards wrote on Instagram in 2022 to commemorate her parents' 39th anniversary. "I love you mom and dad. You guys are my inspiration."

Actor and director Clint Eastwood broke through in 1971 with the film "Dirty Harry," cementing his legacy as a Western and action-movie icon. His six-decade-long career has been dotted with critically acclaimed films like "Million Dollar Baby" and "Unforgiven," but his personal life is a little less immaculate: He has an unconfirmed number of children and was notorious for having affairs during his first marriage to Margaret Johnson. In 1996, however, he seemed to settle down, marrying news anchor Dina Ruiz, who is 35 years his junior. When asked by Carmel Magazine what drew Eastwood to Ruiz, he replied, "Oh, I don't know. The big doe eyes. She's a very forthright kind of person. It's one of those things you can't put your finger on because it's pheromones or something."

By 2013, however, various dramas seemed to contribute to their decision to divorce. Ruiz had starred in and produced the 2012 reality show "Mrs. Eastwood and Company" alongside the couple's two daughters, which Eastwood apparently disapproved of. "It went against everything he stands for: he's incredibly private, and she put his kids on TV," a source told People. Ruiz leaned on her friend Scott Fisher for support, whom she married, while Eastwood was seen with Erica, Fisher's then-wife. Though Eastwood is tight-lipped about his love life, Ruiz seems to still think fondly of him: "I don't like reading negative things about Clint," she said after their separation, per People. "He is a wonderful, good-natured, brilliant person. No matter what, I attest to that."

Maybe he didn't get "Jessie's Girl," but Rick Springfield ended up with the right girl: He met Barbara Porter in the late '70s at a recording studio where she worked, although Springfield thought she was too young at the time — she is 14 years younger — and wasn't interested. A few years later, they encountered each other again, and Springfield's mind changed. "I'd always thought about her because she worked in the office at Sound City. I called her up on one brave moment and asked her out," he told People. They married in 1984 and have two sons.

Springfield credits their mutual support and their shared interests for sustaining their marriage over the course of 40-plus years. "She's been my rock, and I've been her rock," he said, per People. "...She's definitely the one that has been the core of our relationship, without question, but as we get older, we both go off the deep end and the other one's got to be there to throw the lifesaver and pull them back to shore." He also shared his simple advice to those wondering how to stay married for so long: "Don't get divorced."