19-year-old married to man 43 years her senior responds to 'paedophile' comments

An 19-year-old American woman married to a man 43 years her senior has hit out at trolls who accuse her husband of being a “paedophile” and “child snatcher”.

Samantha Simpson, a student, met now-husband JR, 62, through mutual friends when she was 18. The pair moved in together after six months of dating.

While Simpson’s family did not accept her relationship, the pair nevertheless went ahead and tied the knot one year into their relationship on 8 January 2019. They are now trying for a child.

The couple still face comments from strangers on a regular basis, according to Simpson.

“When we are out in public, we have strangers mistaking us for grandad and granddaughter all of the time and it can really upset me,” she says.

“But it’s even worse when people call JR a ‘child snatcher’ or a ‘paedophile’ when they see us hold hands or kiss in public. There’s not a moment when we are out and about that someone doesn’t make a comment about our relationship, and it’s just exhausting.

“We have had enough of a hard time with family and friends not accepting our relationship, that when strangers do it too it just becomes too much.”

Samantha – who was first attracted to JR because of “how well presented he was and the fact that he was such a gentleman” – says she just wants others to accept their relationship.

“We just want people to realise that we are happily married and serious about our relationship – and other people shouldn’t be discriminating us in such a way.”

This isn’t the only example of a happily married couple with an extreme age gap.

Almeda from the US was 71-years-old when she met 17-year-old Gary at her son’s funeral – whom she married two weeks later.

“I wasn’t looking for a young man, but Gary just came along,” said Almeda said in one of their Youtube videos. “I just knew straight away that he was the one.”

One school of thought suggests that the bigger the relationship age gap, the greater your chances of breaking up – with lovers who are twenty years apart found to have a 95% chance of going their separate ways.

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