Younger Man, Older Woman: Aaron Johnson and Sam Taylor-Wood
Because infidelity is par for the course in Hollywood, perhaps no one was surprised when director Sam Taylor-Wood divorced her husband of nearly a decade in 2008. The shock came when a year later she announced her engagement to Aaron Johnson, an actor twenty-three years her junior.
Aaron Johnson stars alongside Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina
Taylor-Wood, now 45, and Johnson, 22, met when she cast him in 2008 to play John Lennon in her debut film Nowhere Boy. The romance was swift. Taylor-Wood broke up her marriage to Jay Jopling, with whom she has two daughters, and became pregnant with Johnson's baby in 2010. She would go on to have another child with Johnson before they were married last June.
Though it's understandable to be scandalized by the difference in Taylor-Wood and Johnson's age, the hard truth is that men frequently marry younger women all the time, both in and out of Hollywood. Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas are twenty-five years apart in age, and still married. Katie Holmes spoke of wanting to marry Tom Cruise when she was a child. But that's another story.
And of course some men are interested in older women. When asked about the age difference, Johnson put it eloquently: "I'm an old soul and she's a young soul. We don't see an age gap, we just see each other."
Taylor-Wood, who claims that Johnson was the one who suggested they have children together, is a courageous woman. She began her career as a photographer and visual artist and her debut film, Nowhere Boy, starring Johnson, was released in 2009. At age 30, she was diagnosed with colon cancer and overcame it, and three years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
On top of everything else, apparently Taylor-Wood and Johnson get along swimmingly with Taylor-Wood's ex-husband, Jay Jopling, even attending social events together.
What do you think about Sam Taylor-Wood and Aaron Johnson? Would you ever have a relationship with someone twenty-three years younger than you?
