The Rich, the Powerful, the Beautiful

Historic beauties and powerful women have been choosing mates as well as lovers from the population of younger men for a very long time. Catherine the Great had frequent liasons with younger men and bore children by a couple of them. As she grew older, her favorites became younger. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most powerful woman of the 12th century married Henry Plantagenet, 11 years her junior. The French King, Louis XIV, kept the significantly older Madame de Beauvais as his mistress. We know too that Mrs. Christabella Wyndham, the mistress of King Charles II of England had once been his wet nurse when he was an infant. Mary Tyler Moore is married to Dr. Robert Levine, who is 16 years younger than she is. British actor Ralph Fiennes is 17 years younger than his significant other, Francesca Annis. Up to the time of her death, Audrey Hepburn lived with Robert Wolders, who was 7 years younger than she was. Before his relationship with Hepburn, Wolders was happily married to Merle Oberon who was 25 years older, and he remained with Oberon until her death in 1979. Dorothy Parker, brilliant member of the Algonquin roundtable was married to Alan Campbell, 11 years her junior. She too had much younger lovers throughout her life. The writer, Anais Nin 41, who was Henry Miller's lover, had a liason with Bill Pinckard, who was then 17. Writer Terry McMillan's man is 24 years younger. This list could go on and on, but I include it to show that older women and younger men have been pairing up for a very long time. Now, we are seeing it as a growing trend in our general population. Future posts will include others whose names you'll recognize.