'Not my dad': Couple's 29-year-age gap shocks onlookers
A couple with a 29-year age gap have revealed they are constantly mistaken for father and daughter but they insist they're happier than ever.
Kayla Caudill, 23, from Georgia, US, first her met her 51-year-old partner Stephen Dunn in May 2019 when he did her belly button piercing.
During the appointment, Kayla and Stephen - who were both in relationships at the time - exchanged conversation and a friendship soon formed.
“We definitely didn't have love at first sight, but there was something special there,” Kayla said. “Neither one of us were in the position to pursue a relationship at that time. He was with someone and I was married. It was strictly a friendship in the beginning.
“I thought he was so charismatic, handsome, and attentive. He thought I was kind and liked how I listened when he spoke. There was no denying our connection.”
Neither Kayla nor Stephen were completely happy in their previous relationships. The way they could both easily communicate with each other only highlighted this further as the duo felt a spark and their feelings grew deeper.
In June 2019, Kayla and Stephen decided to end their relationships so that they could take a chance and be together to explore their love for each other.
“We both left everything we knew, everything we had built in our separate lives, for each other. It was crazy. I knew I had to have him. He was everything I had wanted in someone,” she said.
“We have a gap in maturity obviously. I don't have as much life experience as him but I have been through a lot. He teaches me about life and I learn.
“I'm more mature than my age labels me as and it works to my advantage. If I acted my age, we would not be together. I label myself as a forty-three-year-old in a twenty-three-year-old’s body.”
The couple’s 29-year age gap has raised eyebrows in their respective families with Kayla’s biological father disowning her. Additionally, Stephen’s ex-partner doesn’t want Kayla to be involved with his children - which she respects.
But for the most part, their families are happy to see them happy and the longer the couple are together, the more they warm to the idea.
“The longer we are together the more people start to see that we are just like any other couple who love and care for each other deeply,” Kayla revealed
“We make each other laugh. We get another chance to really experience what love is supposed to be like. We help each other heal from past trauma in relationships and we have lots of sex.
“It sounds crazy but it was something we've both lacked in previous relationships.”
She says the most difficult thing is other people.
“We understand that there are those that won't be understanding, those that are angry and hurt from our choice to be together, but at the end of the day we chose each other and we'd do it over and over again,” she said.
“We get asked, ‘Is that your daughter?’ We love making others stare leaving them confused,” she added.
“It's like comedic relief for us. We honestly need our own reality tv show because I think others would love some mindless entertainment that we call everyday life.”
Additional reporting by Media Drum World/Australscope.
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