Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Wife Comments on Couple’s 23-Year Age Gap

There has been no shortage of public curiosity into the marriage of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his wife of nearly 12 years, Sam Taylor-Johnson. The couple met on the set of her 2009 directorial debut, Nowhere Boy, when Aaron was 18 and Sam, newly separated from her first husband, was 42. Now, 15 years later, they share four children (including her two daughters from her first marriage) and seem to be strong as ever.

While promoting her latest film, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, Taylor-Johnson was asked in a recent interview with The Guardian whether the age gap between her and Aaron ever factors into their relationship, “in terms of different interests or cultural reference points.”

The 57-year-old responded with an unequivocal, “No, it never does.”

“I mean, it’s coming up now because you’re asking,” Taylor-Johnson continued. “And it comes up on the outside perspective of people who don’t know us. We’re a bit of an anomaly, but it’s that thing: after 14 years you just think, surely by now it doesn’t really matter?”

She noted that online, in particular, people can be “abusive about anything.” But having said that, Taylor-Johnson still doesn’t go out of her way to avoid social media. “Because it’s just there, but it doesn’t mean anything,” she explained. “It is just people upset with their own sadness; with misgivings about their own life.”

When asked whether their two younger daughters, 11 and 13, face prejudice from fans, Taylor-Johnson likewise had a measured response.

“Not really. Or, if so, I don’t think they care. They see two loving, happy parents, so it doesn’t really register,” she said. “They just think people are a bit mean, or mad.” And considering that she was with her first husband, art dealer Jay Jopling, for fewer years than she’s been with her current beau, the criticism seems especially overblown.

“If you think of it in that way, then the age gap doesn’t really make any difference,” she added.

For his part, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has also fired back at critics of the couple’s age difference, recently telling Rolling Stone UK that growing up in the spotlight made him come of age faster than most of his peers.

“What you gotta realize … is that what most people were doing in their 20s, I was doing when I was 13,” he said in the interview published last month. “You’re doing something too quickly for someone else? I don’t understand that. What speed are you supposed to enjoy life at? It’s bizarre to me.”