Watch: Anthony Kiedis’ Girlfriend Eileen Kelly Defends Their 33-Year Age Gap
By the way, Anthony Kiedis’ girlfriend Eileen Kelly has no problem with their age gap.
In fact, the sex educator candidly discussed their 33-year age difference in an essay titled “My Boyfriend Is Double My Age.” And while she did not name the Red Hot Chili Peppersfrontman directly, the two have been seen together on several occasions.
“My own boyfriend is more than twice my age,” Eileen wrote in her April 21 essay for Vogue, “which is either alarming or impressive, depending on who you ask.”
The 30-year-old added it was her “first time dating someone significantly older,”—Anthony is 63—writing, “sometimes I joke with friends that I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
The way she sees it, an older man has “simply had more time to get his s–t together, and my much older boyfriend seems genuinely excited to be with me—not like he’s biding his time before he can swipe for someone better. He is fully aware that he’s one lucky bastard.”
Eileen shared that the two met at a birthday party and quickly hit it off when they discovered she often vacationed in a tiny Hawaiian town where Anthony owns a home.
“We joked about whether we’d ever passed each other on the same stretch of sand, or stood in line next to each other at the same health food store,” she wrote. “As we kept talking, we quickly realized our lives had crossed in other ways too, an invisible string connecting us.”
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And when it comes to the reactions she and Anthony have received, Eileen has noticed that when an older man dates a younger woman, he “is reflexively labeled ‘creepy’ and ‘gross,’ while the woman ‘must have daddy issues’ or must be a gold-digger.”
The two have also received “unsolicited” comments in public throughout their time together, with Eileen having been asked if Anthony is her dad.
“The remarks come with a cheerful bluntness, suggesting a certain satisfaction at having correctly identified the matter at hand,” Eileen explained, “and it’s incredibly awkward every time.”
Still, she is very much aware of the power imbalance that can happen in age gap relationships, especially if one person “provides the conditions for the other’s stability,” which canlead to “a dangerous dynamic.”
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However, while the Vogue writer noted that the conversation is “a nuanced issue,” she is thankful that she and Anthony—who shares son Everly Bear Kiedis, 18, with ex-girlfriend HeatherChristie—don’t have that kind of relationship.
“I have my own money, my own career, and I have my own home,” she said, “I love my boyfriend, but I’m not at risk of losing everything if we break up.”
For now, she and Anthony are focusing on their love for one another and tuning out any assumptions people might make about them—which she feels often “reveals more about them” than about her and Anthony.
“The reality is comparatively unremarkable,” she wrote in conclusion. “From the inside, we’re mostly just two people doing the ongoing, unremarkable work of moving through life together.”
While Anthony has yet to publicly speak about his relationship with Eileen, keep reading for more stars who have been open about their own age gap romances.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
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