Shirley Ballas criticises 'sexist' double standards over 13-years-younger boyfriend

Shirley Ballas has criticised the media coverage of her relationship with boyfriend Daniel Taylor, who is 13 years her junior.

The ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ judge, 59, has been dating boyfriend Daniel Taylor, 46, for nine months.

The pair met while starring in pantomime ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ together in Liverpool over Christmas last year, and entered into a romantic relationship in March.

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Appearing on ‘Loose Women’ with Taylor earlier today, Ballas – who is twice divorced – complained about the media’s tendency to misrepresent his age.

“Well, the press seem to always want to put him down as 44: he’ll be 47 on his next birthday,” she said.

“I just think it’s so sexist. It doesn’t seem to matter if an older man gets a younger woman. There’s not much chat about it. There seems to be major chat about this [relationship]. There’s 12 years, 13 maybe.”

Ballas is far from the first to complain of a prevalent double standard surrounding age-gap relationships.

Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, has faced a slew of criticism over the 24-year-old age gap with her husband.

Yet the pair’s age-gap is exactly the same as that of US President Donald Trump and his third wife, Melania Trump.

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Other examples of older women with younger male partners include Demi Moore, who married Ashton Kutcher when she was 43 and he was 27.

Director Sam Taylor-Wood married actor Aaron Johnson despite the couple’s 23-year age gap – the pair now share the double barrelled surname “Taylor-Johnson”.

More recently, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra has been trolled on social media for her 10-year age gap with husband Nick Jonas.