Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PA WIRE
Opinion
'What's the big deal about Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch? There were 22 years between my parents'
The sarcastic comments about their upcoming marriage are petty and childish. Is it so difficult to believe that they might actually be in love and make each other laugh? asks Megan Roantree.
MEDIA MOGUL RUPERT Murdoch is set to marry former model, Jerry Hall. There are 25 years between the couple, so naturally all the predictable remarks arose.
Murdoch who is 84 and worth $12 billion dollars has been married three times before, with some of his past wives being younger that Hall.
The running joke in sarcastic articles and from Twitter cynics is in the form of a question “So Jerry, what first attracted you to billionaire Rupert Murdoch?”
Hall is 59, she is not a 20-something year old nobody who is simply looking for some money to run off with, she is an actress and model who is worth an estimated $11 million.
She may not quite be a billionaire, but isn’t exactly in dire financial straits either. Hall was also in a relationship with The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger for over 20 years, so it’s not as if she needs her fifteen minutes of fame either.
Why is it so incredibly impossible to believe that the two are actually happy together?
My mother and late father were very happy together and very much in love. Of course they argued occasionally like everyone else, but I always felt my parents we’re a perfect couple, and anyone else I know would say the same.
There were also 22 years between them.
Not many people noticed their age gap and they definitely didn’t seem to mind it. This fact never bothered me, nor did I even realise it was something to be bothered by, so when I see ‘gold-digger’ comments, remarks of disgust or general judgemental opinions towards relationships with an age gap, I tend to very strongly disagree.
The majority of comments made since the news of Murdoch and Hall’s engagement so far have not been very logical but rather ageist, sexist and sarcastic.
If there was no real age gap would the coverage of this relationship be scrutinising or would it be covered at all?
An article in The Irish Times discussed the ‘planet’s revulsion’ at the thought of the two being intimate, something that isn’t of much concern to anyone other than the couple. It would also make it seem as though people over the age of 50 having sex is revolting.
Vogue magazine took an altogether different approach, saying that the two make for an interesting pair.
“This joining of a style icon and fashion muse to one of the publishing world’s wealthiest and most influential men means the birth of a shiny new power couple.”
It is interesting that a women’s magazine looks at the achievements of the two and what bringing them together will do rather than labelling her with the unimaginative accusation of ‘gold-digger’.
They may not go on to change the world, but the encouragement without mention of scepticism from Vogue is refreshing and seldom seen.
It is incredibly easy to be cynical when it comes to age gaps, the truth is that couples who are in the media seem to be doomed from the start these days. It is easier to find a Hollywood or even relatively famous couple who are divorced than it is to find a couple who are happily married.
This couple have just as much a chance as all that came before them, which isn’t much, but it also hasn’t got much to do with the age gap.
Megan Roantree is the features editor of The College View in DCU. You can follow her at @MeganRoantree.
have your say