Age difference in relationships: couples with age gaps

It's not always easy dating a much young person © Digital Vision

Living with a man who's almost as old as your dad, spending your life with a woman who's twenty years older, starting a family with a much younger partner... Age-gap relationships are a real talking point and they're not at all uncommon.

From celebrities such as Demi and Ashton or Beyoncé and Jay-Z to Mr and Mrs Smith from down the road, what is it really like to be in a relationship with someone so much older or younger?

We caught up with four readers who've given us honest and candid accounts of their own experiences.

Read our four real-life stories: 
> Melanie, 28, is married to George, 54
> Cathy, 53, lives with Darren, 29
> Jack, 65, is married to Amanda, 43
> John, began dating Lisa, 37, when he was 18.
   

They talk us through the highs, the lows and the anxieties and worries that go hand in hand with an age-gap relationship.

Finally, read a psychiatrist's analysis of age-gap couples*.