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Age Gap Daddy Issues Wedding


By Sophie Jones

**EXCLUSIVE**

THIS COUPLE with a 19-year age gap are now getting married despite obsessed stalkers and social media trolls calling it DADDY ISSUES and trying to split them up.

Model Michael Justin (46) and nurse Emily Downing (27) from Los Angeles, United States, hit it off after meeting at a yoga class in Arizona in 2019.

Since then, their four-year relationship has survived Covid, obsessed stalkers, abusive messages claiming Emily looks older than Michael, and weird kidnapping rumours seeded by social media trolls.

Because of the age gap, they both had reservations about a relationship, and then Michael moved to LA to further his modelling career while Emily continued to study nursing in Arizona.

When the pandemic hit, they realised they couldn't stand being apart and moved in together back in Arizona, which is when Michael decided to go public about his relationship with Emily – something he’d never done before.

There was an immediate backlash on Michael’s social media from a creepy subset of his fans and Emily found herself being harassed, abused, and even had strangers ringing her number, trying to convince her Michael was cheating on her.

But when Michael started TikTok, the couple grew an entirely different type of follower who are largely positive about their relationship and even ask for dating tips.

“At that point in the relationship, we had honestly been a little bit more private than we are now,” said Emily.

“Just because during the start of the pandemic, Michael had a pretty big following on Instagram prior to having a following on TikTok.

“I actually used to get really scary messages on DM (direct messages).

“And they got my phone number at one point and these mega fans of Michael would be saying these terrible things to me.

“We could tell they were trying to make me believe that Michael had cheated on me and trying to break up our relationship.

“So I thought, ‘You know what, let's just end this for once and for all’.

“We should just embrace it and say, we're a couple and just really show people that we're together and then people will probably stop bullying me because I'm probably getting bullied just because we're being secretive about it.”

Their first TikTok as a couple was a huge hit and got three million views – an incredible feat in 2020 when the app was just taking off globally.

“Being with me has definitely slowed down his stalkers, he doesn't have as many as he used to,” said Emily.

“You have to make a switch with your followers,” said Michael.

“When I first started posting anything on Instagram about Emily, I think I lost about 8,000 followers the first week.”

There is still the occasional bit of weirdness on social media; recently TikTok users claimed Michael had kidnapped Emily.

“I think it's like some kind of a trend, or, honestly, people just love to feed off something negative because it's just so drastic and stupid,” said Michael.

“We were sitting in a coffee shop and it was raining and I had my hoodie over my head.

“It was enough for, obviously, the younger generation of TikTok, to literally think, ‘here's this old guy’, and it's the perfect storm.”

Michael and Emily think the rumour is so ridiculous that they’ve been having fun creating tongue-in-cheek videos mocking it.

“They say, ‘wear green, if you're wearing green on the next video you were kidnapped’, and so I was gonna put her in green and literally talk about our wedding,” said Michael.

“Clearly I wouldn't be talking about my wedding and marrying this man if he kidnapped me,” said Emily.

There is a minority of people who still actively target Emily, either saying she has “daddy issues” or claiming she looks really old.

“I've gotten a lot of comments that say, I look older than Michael,” she said.

“You know, they were like, ‘Oh, this girl has terrible skin. She needs to put sunscreen on. She looks like she's 60.’

“We don't let the negative comments get to us. Those people are clearly sad and mad people and that's their problem.”

Emily said the nicest part about TikTok is building a friendly community and giving advice to people who themselves face judgement from family or friends over an age-gap relationship.

“You know what, if it's a friend who is being so mean to you over this, that friend was probably never cheering you on,” said Emily.

“They were probably on the opposite team’s benches rooting against you all along.

“So usually, this is a time in your life when the true colours of people are shown.

“I always tell people, when you're doing something that makes you happy, that's really all that matters.

“You can't can't concern yourself too much with everyone's opinions.”

Meanwhile, Michael has given male followers the confidence to not dye their greying hair, or leap back into the dating world following a painful break-up or divorce.

Now the couple are looking forward to their wedding in November and want to start a family.

“I've kind of always known I wanted to be a mom; I feel like I was born with that maternal energy,” said Emily.

“That was one of the reservations in the beginning of our relationship.

“I figured, oh, he's an older bachelor, he probably doesn't want kids.

“When it came time to talk about engagement and wedding, he said to me, ‘You are the only girl I've ever pictured myself being able to have children with.’”


ENDS