Psychotherapist Eloise Skinner has said the ideal age gap between romantic partners falls between zero and three years, telling the British newspaper Metro that couples close in age tend to build the most durable relationships.
Skinner said couples of a similar age find it easier to align on life plans, financial matters, health and daily habits, factors she described as key to a lasting partnership.
Why bigger age gaps can cause friction
According to Skinner, larger age differences can create disagreements over having and raising children, retirement timing and financial planning. She also pointed to differences in values and emotional maturity as potential sources of conflict between partners of different generations.
Metro, a UK tabloid title distributed free across Britain, regularly publishes lifestyle and relationship features that draw on comments from psychologists and other experts. Age-gap relationships have become a recurring subject in this kind of coverage in recent years, partly driven by public interest in high-profile couples with large age differences.
No fixed cut-off point, Skinner says
Skinner stressed that there is no such thing as a truly ideal age gap, nor a clear threshold beyond which a difference in age becomes a problem for a couple. She said it is especially important to consider the possibility of a power imbalance when one partner is significantly wealthier or holds higher status than the other.
Even so, Skinner said happy and stable relationships remain possible even when partners are separated by a large age gap.
Separate comments on friendship
In earlier remarks reported separately, Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, known for his writing on happiness and human relationships, said true friends can be thought of as useless people. He explained that such people stay close to someone without any particular purpose and regardless of what they might be able to offer in return.
