She defended her age-gap relationship with Jade Whipkey after some criticism surfaced online.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Isobel Lewis<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2220152319-scaled.jpg” alt=”Anna Camp and girlfriend” title_text=”US-ENTERTAINMENT-MOVIE” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] When Pitch Perfect star Anna Camp first announced her new relationship with girlfriend Jade Whipkey last month, most people celebrated the news that the actress was publicly dating a woman for the first time. After all, Anna had previously been married to actor Michael Mosley and her Pitch Perfect co-star Skylar Austin. But as Anna and Jade made their red carpet debut together at the Los Angeles premiere of Anna\u2019s new film, Bride Hard, last week, it was a different aspect of their dynamic that people focused on. Seeing them side by side, social media users instead fixated on the fact that Anna is 42, while stylist and designer Jade is 24.<\/p>\n From long-standing partnerships with a significant space between their ages (Michael Douglas, 80, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, 55) to the hottest new celebrity couples (Bradley Cooper, 50, and Gigi Hadid, 30), nothing gets people angry online quite like a celebrity age-gap relationship. Anna\u2019s romance with Jade, who she first revealed she was dating back in May, brought out the familiar talking points: that the relationship was inappropriate, strange, and even reflected an abuse of power. \u201cI\u2019m in my mid 30s and I can\u2019t imagine having the necessary common ground to start a relationship with a 20-year-old. What could they possibly have in common?\u201d one Instagram commenter wrote.<\/p>\n But not here for criticism of her new relationship, Anna leapt to her and Jade\u2019s defence. \u201cI\u2019ve dated men exactly my age and Jade is FAR more mature than any of them,\u201d she commented on an Instagram post by LGBTQ+ publisher Pink News. \u201cWe have more in common than anyone else I\u2019ve ever dated and can literally talk about anything and everything.\u201d Anna then added: \u201cEveryone is entitled to their opinion, and I\u2019m wishing everyone well \ud83d\ude42 Especially this Pride month.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2220848316-scaled.jpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″ alt=”Anna Camp and girlfriend” title_text=”Los Angeles Premiere Of %22Bride Hard%22 – Arrivals”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Age-gap discourse is a well worn subject, and often brings out strong emotions in others around gender, power, and money. Legally, as long as both parties are consenting adults, there\u2019s nothing technically wrong with dating someone older or younger than you. But for many, there\u2019s an imbalance inherent to a relationship like this \u2013 one where the relationship can never be equal. Of course, the longer the relationship lasts and as the couple age together, that criticism often lessens. Like many of Hollywood\u2019s most notable age-gap relationships, Douglas and Zeta-Jones faced criticism at the start of their courtship, but have proven many of the naysayers wrong by sticking with each other for 25 years.<\/p>\n The words in Anna\u2019s comment feel familiar. It\u2019s not uncommon for the older party in age-gap relationships to talk about their partner\u2019s emotional maturity, or the younger one to talk about how similar they feel in terms of age. These arguments can make some people uncomfortable, yet at the same time, others say that to refuse to consider both people to be adults is to \u201cinfantilise\u201d them. \u201cSo \u2018love is love\u2019 until there’s an age gap? They\u2019re both adults,\u201d one person commented, while another echoed: \u201c24 is ADULT age, they are grown ADULTS.\u201d<\/p>\n But when Anna compared her relationship with Jade to those with men she\u2019s dated in the past, she raised an interesting point: that queer age-gap relationships are not the same as straight ones, and should be treated as such. For one thing, they\u2019re far more common. According to the 2021 US census, five percent of married same-sex couples were more than 20 years apart in age, compared to just one percent in heterosexual marriages.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] One of Hollywood\u2019s most high profile lesbian couples, Holland Taylor, 82, and Sarah Paulson, 50, have a 32-year age gap between them. American Horror Story star Paulson has herself acknowledged the public\u2019s reaction, but refused to let it bother her. \u201cFor many, our age difference is very disconcerting,\u201d she told El Pa\u00eds in February. \u201cThat\u2019s why I like to represent something so positive and unconventional, because living by predetermined social norms is boring, and why would you follow a path that isn\u2019t yours?\u201d<\/p>\n Power dynamics are undeniably different when both parties are the same gender. Commenting on Anna and Jade\u2019s love, one social media user argued that age gap relationships in queer relationships \u201cdon\u2019t often elicit the same power imbalances as hetero relationships, given we live in a patriarchal society that prioritises men being in power and women being objectified. Healthy queer relationships don\u2019t prescribe to those heteronormative gender dynamics.\u201d Or, as another jokingly put it in a much-liked comment: \u201cMany don\u2019t understand that being a controversially young girlfriend is the lesbian dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, that doesn\u2019t mean that there are no issues at all. Gender might not be causing friction in their relationship, but many have pointed out that Anna being a star in the entertainment industry, while Jade is early in her career and works behind the scenes does suggest an imbalance. But this is also Anna\u2019s first public relationship with a woman after decades of dating men; in some ways, she can be seen as the less experienced party.<\/p>\n Human relationships are always going to be complicated, which is why broad statements that all age-gap romances are in their very nature bad can rankle some people. But they also show that the discourse lacks nuance \u2013 particularly when it comes to queer relationships which have their own power dynamics to contend with. Ultimately, age-gap relationships will spark discussion, and Anna knows this. In saying that \u201ceveryone is entitled to their opinion\u201d rather than telling people to back off her relationship, she invites all of us to question the things we believe and think more critically. That can only be a good thing.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They were recently pictured together and faced some criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11290"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11303,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11290\/revisions\/11303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Living by predetermined social norms is boring.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]