In case you’ve been living under a rock, Brad Pitt, 62, has a Swiss jewellery executive girlfriend, who is half his age – Ines de Ramon, 33.
The couple graced social media in early July after four years together – on her hairstylist’s Instagram page – looking glamorous in matching black outfits ahead of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding ceremony at Madison Square Garden in NYC. They have since been spotted looking loved-up at the quarter-final World Cup match between Spain and Belgium in LA.
It could be seen as a symptom of a midlife crisis – and Brad has a lot going on at the present moment. Since his long drawn out and toxic divorce from Angelina Jolie, 51, his kids Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and 17-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne have reportedly distanced themselves from their father, and dropped his last name, except Pax whose kept the Pitt surname but called Brad a “world-class a**hole” on a Father’s Day Instagram post.
But it’s not about midlife angst; it’s so much less deep. The rise of the half-life wife is an unstoppable trend among men who think dating younger versions of their ex-wives is progressive and cool; more like a midlife refresh.
Look at Noel Gallagher, the 59-year-old Oasis rocker, who was mingling with Brad and Ines at the Belgium v Spain match last week. He might not have brought along a date half his age, but he also reportedly has a new younger girlfriend, 14 years his junior – Tori Cook, the 45-year-old socialite and publicist, who is best friends with Sienna Miller.
According to reports, the pair have “grown close” after being photographed sneaking out of a side entrance at Euston station after a trip to Manchester, where the couple had been partying together at the 2026 Brit Awards and after-party at the northern branch of Soho House in February.
Gallagher had split up from his even younger 39-year-old girlfriend Sally Marsh a few months earlier, his first relationship after he and his ex-wife Sara MacDonald, 54, announced they were separating after 12 years of marriage in January 2023. Prior to that, of course, Gallagher was married to Meg Matthews, 60, from 1997 to 2001.
Jude Law, 53, is also bang on trend with his younger wife, Dr Phillipa Coan – whom he married in 2019 and who is roughly 15 years his junior.
Men often date younger women for an ego boost, or because they think they have less baggage – and let’s be honest, because the newer version doesn’t look so old.
She describes herself on her Twitter profile as a “psychologist, coach & behaviour change specialist” but other than that, she is notoriously private. It’s another case of the half-life wife: Law ex-wife, Sadie Frost, is now 60, which makes his new wife about 22 years younger than her.
And as if we need further proof of this new younger wife swap trend, interestingly de Ramon’s ex, Paul Wesley, 43, the Vampire Diaries actor, has married Natalie Kuckenburg, 26, one week after his ex-wife went Instagram official with Pitt. She is a model 17 years his junior and looks just like Ines.
What is striking is that these men seem to think their younger girlfriend mindset is avant-garde, revelling in the beauty of it like it’s never happened before. But it’s what older men have been doing since the age of time: trading older women in for a younger, newer version.
I’ve actually been through it myself. It adds insult to the injury to any break-up when you see yourself, but younger, with your ex, which happened to me when I was aged around 30. When I saw her giggling as they snogged at a cafe in the Portobello Road I actually did a double take as she looked so like I did – same blond hair, brown eyes and small frame – 10 years earlier.
They might think they are new men, but they look like they are the same old men, just with half-life wives. Mick Jagger, 82, and his fiancée, former ballerina Melanie Hamrick, 39, have an age gap of 44 years. They have been together since 2014, and share an nine-year-old son, Deveraux. Jagger’s ex-wife, Jerry Hall, 70, is old enough to be Hamrick’s grandmother.
The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, 79, made tabloid headlines in 2008 when he left his wife of 23 years, Jo Wood, 71, for a 19-year-old cocktail waitress, Ekaterina Ivanova in 2008, who looked just like a carbon copy of his ex-wife – just decades younger. He’s now married to Sally Humphries, 48, who is again much younger than him.
In fact the list is seemingly endless: Robert De Niro, 82, had a baby named Gia Virginia Chen De Niro, with his partner Tiffany Chen, 48, in 2023. De Niro was married before for two decades to ex-wife Grace Hightower, 71, before officially separating in 2018.
Others, like Rod Stewart and Leonardo DiCaprio, have never really known anything but age-gap relationships throughout their careers.
Men often date younger women for an ego boost, or because they think they have less baggage – and let’s be honest, because the newer version doesn’t look so old.
It’s an attempted antidote for men to ageing and mortality; a way for them to try to reclaim youth by hanging out with younger partners, who don’t want to be in bed with a good book by 9pm like the rest of us.
Of course, it can work both ways. Age-gap relationships are not seen as a big deal anymore, with women including Sam Taylor Wood, 59, whose husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson is 36, and Sienna Miller, 44, who is engaged to the model Oli Green, 29, leading the way on that front.
But while some men see the half-life wife as liberating – a release from traditional, rigid societal timelines and expectations – it’s really not. It’s ageist.
Older men are viewed as distinguished as they age and are valued for their wisdom and experience. Older women are no longer objects of desire or vessels of reproduction but invisible
The patriarchy creates a double standard around ageing. Older men are viewed as distinguished as they age and are valued for their wisdom and experience. Older women are no longer objects of desire or vessels of reproduction but invisible, not only as far as the male gaze is concerned, but also in the workplace, where they are often discriminated against.
Of course, true compatibility transcends age, but for many men like Pitt, even if there is a genuine love for their younger partners, a big pull is that it’s a way to stay active and culturally relevant.
There is nothing forward-thinking about the new-life wife mindset. It’s all about basking in the glory of the age gap – as if it’s reaching dizzying new heights nobody has ever scaled before. In reality it’s just as creepy as the old-fashioned mindset of “the younger the better”.
