September 15, 2026- This is a problem I have periodically encountered in my work and while walking the road of life over the years, but it is not a potential problem area openly discussed when people think of getting married. Personally, my father was 19 years older than my mother and they got along fine during their whole marriage. I am over six years older than my wife and we have been married over 51 years. I also am aware of many persons with large age gaps who get along fine. With that said, I also have known couples who have had problems because of age differences. Somewhat extreme examples of large age gaps between couples very notable at this time in our society would be the relationship between Coach Bill Belichick and his 49 year age gap from his significant other, Jordan Hudson. In addition, there is a 32 year age gap between President Trump‘s recently departed press secretary, Carolyn Levitt, and her husband, Nicholas Riccio. Such age differences are extreme, and we will be talking more about potential problems with age differences of seven years and more. One obvious one with many years difference would be where expectations are very different from one generation to another. For example, the older spouse might have very definite expectations for not only the spouse, but what is expected in the behavior and attitudes of children. There also can be differences in emotional maturity if an older person marries a significantly younger person say of 10 years or more where what would be defined as fun and leisure activities could be quite different. There also can be a power imbalance if the older spouse has significantly more education and income, and uses these in a negative way to control the relationship as one person can feel very much the minor partner and not able to be an equal. There also can be social stigma where people see the large age gap as inappropriate and this can lead to problems in relationships where other couples and other persons have no desire to be around a couple where a person is significantly older. The person may not fit into the social landscape and this could lead to relationship problems for both persons. It also is true in our society that it is more acceptable for a man to be significantly older in a relationship than it is for a woman. I believe this is changing at this time, but it is noted and noticed if a woman is significantly older than her spouse. Another key factor not thought about when persons first fall in love with a significant age gap is the emotional and physical drain it can have on the spouse who may end up having to look after an aging spouse whose health deteriorates and requires constant care by the younger spouse. This could be particularly true in age gap differences of say 15 to 20 years. For example, persons that marry when one partner is 40 and the other is 20 end up being 80 and 60 after 40 years of marriage. Another area of concern would be retirement. The much older partner may desire to retire at 55 while the spouse who is say 40 has no desire to retire. In addition to that, they may not be in a situation where the person can retire or quit working because of financial needs. With all that I have said here, it is important to know that love sent from the arrow of Cupid does not always take age into account when persons fall in love. An important result is that many couples with many year age gap differences between them do fine. What we are talking about here today are potential problems that can occur in such situations.