Do relationships with big age gaps work?

Cheryl and Liam Payne - These two are just the most recent in a history of failed age-gap relationships. They met when a 14-year-old wannabe popstar Liam auditioned on 'The X Factor' and Cheryl was on the judging panel. She is now 35 and he 24. They welcomed their son Bear last year and have said that they "still have so much love for each other as a family".

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What's the evidence? - Psychology Today reports that a 2014 Emory University study of 3,000 recently married and divorced people showed that couples with ages falling within five years of each other were significantly less likely to divorce than couples who had age gaps of 10 or 20 years.

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Inconclusive findings - But the magazine went on to say that a 2008 analysis of data from England and Wales shows that there is not a significant association between age gap and marriage dissolution.

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Mary-Kate Olsen and Olivier Sarkozy - ABC reports that across Western countries, about 8% of all married heterosexual couples can be classified as having a large age gap (10 years or more).

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Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Trogneux - It says that these generally involve older men partnered with younger women, but about 1% of age-gap couples involve an older woman partnered with a younger man.

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Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart - Harrison Ford and his wife, Calista Flockhart, have a 22-year age gap. The two have been together since 2002 and married since 2010.

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Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart - In 2003 Flockhart told Hello! magazine, “It doesn’t faze me. Sometimes I even say, ‘Wow, I keep forgetting that he’s 22 years older than me.' It doesn’t factor into our relationship at all. I like the way he looks first thing in the morning. It’s not handsome, it’s more cute. He looks like a little boy.”

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Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones - ABC explains that the pattern of older men with younger women is probably because women place more importance on resources, and men on fertility.

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More satisfied - It continues to detail how some studies find that relationship satisfaction reported by age-gap couples is higher than that reported by couples of the same age. These couples also seem to report greater trust and commitment and lower jealousy than similar-age couples.

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Patterns - A 2018 study found that men tend to be more satisfied with younger wives and less satisfied with older wives. The conclusion indicates that women also tend to be more satisfied with younger partners and less satisfied with older husbands.

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Elton John and David Furnish - Elton John and David Furnish have been together since 1993. They entered into a civil partnership on the first day that they were allowed in England and later married.

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Elton John and David Furnish - John is 71 and Furnish 55. They have two sons together

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Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky - The actress and the director were in a relationship from October 2016 to the end of 2017. They got together when he directed her in 'mother!' and have an age difference of 22 years.

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Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky - ABC reports that one factor that does impact relationship outcomes of age-gap couples is their perceptions of social disapproval. In the case of Lawrence and Aronofsky, the age difference and power dynamic raised some eyebrows.

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Beyonce and Jay-Z - Beyonce and Jay-Z also worked together. They met when she was 18 and he was 30. The two collaborated musically and did not disclose their relationship for years.

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Beyonce and Jay-Z - They married in 2008 and have three children. Both have acknowledged weathering infidelity in the marriage.

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Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor - ABC also reports that these effects appear to apply to heterosexual and same-sex couples. So the negative outcomes for age-gap couples seem to reside not in problems within the couple, but in pressures and judgements from the outside world.

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Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor - Discussing her relationship with Taylor, who is 32 years older, Paulson told The Sunday Times, “I think a lot of people have a stunted way of looking at older people, it’s a way of distancing themselves from something that they think will not happen to them. I have the good fortune of being with someone who is older and wiser than I am.”

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Shared values and interests - ABC opines that the success of a relationship depends on the extent to which partners share similar values, beliefs, and goals about their relationship; supports each other in achieving personal goals; fosters relationship commitment, trust, and intimacy; and resolves problems in constructive ways. It states that these factors have little do with age.

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Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Filmmaker and photographer Sam Taylor-Wood began a relationship with Aaron Johnson after meeting on the set of her 2009 film 'Nowhere Boy'. He was 18 and she was 42.

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Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson - The two married in 2012 and now have two daughters togeteher. Aaron told Times magazine, "I knew I wanted to be with her. I wanted kids, we had kids and I was really into that, taking time off and involving myself in the bubble of her pregnancy."

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Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley have been together since 2010 and have one child together. He is 50 to her 31.

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Guy Ritchie and Madonna - Guy Ritchie has been on both ends of the age-gap dynamic. He was married to Madonna, who is 10 years his senior, for eight years.

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Guy Ritchie and Jacqui Ainsley - He married Jacqui Ainsley in 2015. She is 36 and he 49.

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George and Amal Clooney - Clooney was a known playboy before meeting Amal Alamuddin in 2013. The two married in 2014 and have twins. He is 17 years her senior.

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Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green - Fox began dating actor Brian Austin Green in 2004, after meeting on the set of 'Hope & Faith'. She was 18 and he was 30.

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Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green -

They were engaged in November 2006 but three years later they split. In 2010 they got engaged again and married. Since then they have had three children, separated, and reconciled.

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Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi - DeGeneres and de Rossi have been in a relationship since 2004. They married in 2008 and have four dogs and three cats.

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Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi - Ellen is 15 years her wife's senior.

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