They tend to say, "Age is just numbers?" and exactly that is the same thing that happened to love birds; Nick Jonas and Indian Actress Priyanka Chopra when they married in 2018.
Their marriage attracted media attention, followed by rumours of divorce two years after their marriage. Currently, however, their marriages still stand, proving that age is just a difference.
Relationship experts point out that the age gap between 4 to 5 years is enough to display the different maturity levels. Yet, other schools of thought say the difference of 7 to 10 years is more significant, while others say age doesn't work in marriages and relationships, especially for marital satisfaction.
Furthermore, experts argue the more the emotional maturity gap, the more mature partner could carry heavier emotional baggage, potentially leading to emotional fatigue and break-ups at any moment.
A licensed US-based counsellor, Brandy Porche, with MindPath, the US non-governmental organization that offers mental health services to their clients, believes that when there is a significant difference of 10 to 15 years or more, life experiences are also likely to be quite different.
Even though ages don't guarantee maturity, experts believe years go hand in hand with the endurance of different life experiences.
Gina Marie Guarino, a licensed mental health counsellor and founder of PsychPoint, put forward that the challenges such as health issues may affect couples and age differences as likely to affect the marriage, mainly due to the concerns about the longevity of the oldest partner. "The young partner will likely fear being left alone while the older passes on".
However, communicating with each other ahead of time can reassure the younger partner. "The partner wants to know who will take care of them after the passing of the old partner."
In many relationships, where the man is older than the woman is still more familiar with the typical age of 2-3 years, according to available statistics.
An Australian study from 2015 indicates that, in the first 6 to 10 years, the relationship satisfaction for heterosexual couples with significant age decreases faster than that of zero-aged couples.
It was found that couples with an age of 1 to 3 years with a man older than a woman were the most common and had the most significant levels of satisfaction, while the relationship satisfaction seemed to decrease for couples with an age difference of 4 to 6 years and decrease more with couples of an age difference of 7 years and more.
Is marital satisfaction key to marriage happiness?
Marital satisfaction is one of the most common measures to assess happiness in marriage. Experts have found that Age Differences in relationships can impact marriage and relationships.
Zeinab Tavakol et al. define marital satisfaction as a sense of happiness, satisfaction, and joy experienced by partners when they consider all aspects of their marriage.
Marital satisfaction, according to Zeinab, is one of the common aspects used for assessing happiness and stability in a marriage.
Numerous studies have found that for marriage to be successful, some factors, such as age differences in marriage, mental maturity, and leisure time, among other reasons, are considered.
Like Chopra Priyanka and Nick Jonas, marriages with age differences tend to attract criticism and social stigma, especially in cultures where small age gaps are common in relationships.
"A younger partner might be accused of only choosing an older partner because of their wealth or status, and an older partner might be accused of choosing someone younger for the way they look," Dr Loren Olson, a psychiatrist in Des Moines, Iowa, said.
According to proofs of neuro-images, however, where women mature at younger ages than men, the age gap difference in the marriage phenomenon still has some gaps, especially regarding emotional maturity, due to the differing maturity between males and females.