Alix Earle Reveals Preference for Older Men After Tom Brady Rumors
Alix Earle is getting candid about her love life.
Months after the influencer sparked romance rumors with Tom Brady, she revealed her preference for dating older men.
“I went on a date with a guy who was a year older than me,” Alix said on the May 21 episode of her Get Real With Me YouTube series. “I can’t do it again. That’s never happening.”
“It didn’t feel like I was with a man,” she added. “I want someone to take care of me.”
Though the 25-year-old hasn’t found any luck in the love department with guys her own age since her 2025 breakup from Braxton Berrios, she admitted to previously having suitors where the age gap was simply too wide.
“But sometimes then I’ve gone too far the other end,” she explained, “and I’m like ‘Grandpa!’”
Noting that she’s “too mature” for a limited dating pool, Alix emphasized that she’s after an older man because she wants “someone who knows their s–t.”
But this wouldn’t be the first time the TikTok star has shared insight into her hopes for Mr. Right. After all, she threw subtle shade at both Braxton and Tom when she declared she’d be dating “no more football players” moving forward.
“I wanna date a rock star so bad,” Alix said in her Coachella recap video posted to YouTube April 16 after seeing Sombr perform at the annual music festival. “It’s my dream. That’s literally my dream.”
The Dancing With the Stars alum was rumored to be dating Tom, 48, after she and the former New England Patriots quarterback were seen partying at the same New Year’s Eve event in St. Barths before they were spotted at multiple events in the months following.
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Gucci
While Alix has never confirmed her romance with the NFL legend, she has been candid about life since ending her relationship with Braxton, 30, confessing that the hardest part was feeling lonely.
“Obviously, I have friends, family, whatever,” she said in a Jan. 21 TikTok. “I feel like just having that stability of a male partner or even just someone to talk to or distract me is so weird.”
But as Alix navigates her new chapter as a single woman, she’s making sure to give herself grace.
“Feeling weird and sad & probably sound silly,” she wrote in the post’s caption, “but if you’re going through something similar just know you’re not alone.”
For more stars who have spoken about age-gap relationships, read on…
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Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor
The practice of ignoring what people say about their 32-year age gap is nothing new for the actresses.
“If someone wants to spend any time thinking I’m strange for loving the most spectacular person on the planet, then that’s their problem,” Sarah told Modern Luxury in 2018 while discussing her relationship with Holland. “I’m doing just fine.”
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Heidi Klum & Tom Kaulitz
As for the former Project Runway host, she simply says auf wiedersehen to any negative comments about her 16-year age gap with the Tokio Hotel guitarist.
“My boyfriend is many years younger than me, and lots of people are questioning that and asking about it,” she shared with InStyle in 2018. “That’s really the only time when age seems to be shoved in my face and I have to give an answer for it. I don’t really think about it that much otherwise.”
And Heidi—who married Tom the following year—made it clear she’s going to continue living life on her terms.
“You have to just live a happy life without worrying too much about what people think,” the supermodel continued, “because worrying is only going to give you more wrinkles.”
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Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas
Meanwhile, the Quantico star has called out a double standard.
While she noted people have a lot to say about her being 10 years old than the Jonas Brother singer, she suggested this wouldn’t be the case if it were the other way around.
“People gave us a lot of s–t about that and still do,” Priyanka told InStyle. “I find it really amazing when you flip it and the guy is older, no one cares and actually people like it.”
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Sam Taylor-Johnson & Aaron Taylor-Johnson
And if you’d ask the Fifty Shades of Grey director, she’d say her 23-year age difference with the Kraven the Hunter actor just doesn’t come up in their day-to-day.
“No, it never does,” she said in a 2024 interview with The Guardian. “I mean, it’s coming up now because you’re asking. And it comes up on the outside perspective of people who don’t know us, because I guess people will always…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?”
Sam even pointed out her relationship with Aaron has lasted longer than her marriage to her ex-husband Jay Jopling, who is about four years older than she is.
“So, if you think of it in that way,” she continued, “then the age gap doesn’t really make any difference.”
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Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones
Though the couple share a birthday (Sept. 25), they aren’t on the same page…of the calendar.
“My husband is 25 years older than me; that’s not a secret,” the Chicago star told WSJ. Magazine in 2021. “With any relationship, it wouldn’t be normal if there weren’t any ups and downs. The constant is love and respect.”
Marco Garcia/Getty Images for Lionsgate Entertainment
Dennis Quaid & Laura Savoie
The Parent Trap alum may argue that the only ones who should be focused on his relationship with the Bonniedale Films cofounder is them. T-H-E-M, them. Get the picture?
Still, Dennis indicated he and Laura are unfazed by any attention around her being 39 years younger.
“We just don’t even notice it,” he told Today in 2021 about their age difference. “We’ve never related to someone in my life better than we do. We have such a great relationship. And love finds a way, wherever it is. And you never know, when love is coming, who that’s going to be. And you have no control over it. And we just couldn’t be happier.”
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Hilaria Baldwin & Alec Baldwin
The yoga instructor has admitted she used to judge couples with big age gaps before her relationship with the actor, who is 26 years her senior.
“Alec and I are on all the lists of ‘Celebrities with the Biggest Age Differences’ and stuff like that,” she explained on her podcast Witches Anonymous in 2022. “And I would look at it and be like, ‘This older man wants some young bimbo with no opinions whatsoever. And then that younger woman is obviously a gold digger, and she obviously doesn’t even care and is just like OK, whatever, I hope you die and I’m gonna take all your money.'”
However, she’s since had a change of heart.
“Now that I’m in that relationship and people will say those things about me regularly, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, why was this trained into my head? Why was I so judgmental about other people who are literally just finding love?'” she added. “And maybe their love looks different from you, and from your love, or from what I thought love would be, but it doesn’t make it not valid.”
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Paul Smith
Felicity Blunt & Stanley Tucci
Gird your loins because The Devil Wears Prada actor previously spoke about how he almost ended his relationship with the literary agent in the early days of their romance.
“I’m 21 years older than she is and I didn’t want to feel old for the rest of my life!” Stanley told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2023. “But I knew that this was an incredibly special person.”
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Oli Green & Sienna Miller
The Alfie actress and the Lift actor know not everyone understands their relationship.
“I would imagine it would be complicated for anyone to get their head around,” Oli put it to Vogue while referencing their 15-year age gap, “but there’s been nothing but love and joy.”
And frankly, Sienna suggested nobody else needs to understand it.
“I don’t think you can legislate on matters of the heart,” she added. “I certainly have never been able to.”
Stefanie Keenan/VF24/WireImage for Vanity Fair
Jeff Goldblum & Emilie Livingston
The Jurassic Park star recalled a lighthearted moment with his Olympian wife, who is 30 years his junior.
“I said, ‘Which Beatle would I be if I was one of the Beatles?'” he remembered on The Hoda Show. “She said, ‘Rex Harrison.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, I know we saw that My Fair Lady yesterday. I think you’re thinking of that.'”
However, Jeff noted it didn’t take Emilie long to realize she meant George Harrison.
“So there’s that kind of thing,” he noted of the couple’s age gap. But other than their differing cultural touchpoints, he continued, life together is “so far so good.”
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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley & Jason Statham
The model also doesn’t feel the need to deliver a fast and furious response to any critics of her 20-year age gap with the actor.
“His knowledge and strength are really inspiring and attractive, and that can come with a man who’s had a bit of time,” she told Glamour in 2013. “We have a connection that has nothing to do with age. Work comes and goes, but if you have someone at home who thinks you’re the greatest person in the world, that keeps you going.”
Dia Dipasupil/WireImage
David Foster & Katharine McPhee
As for how the American Idol alum feels about any judgment towards her nearly 35-year age gap with the composer? Probably so over it.
“I totally get the judgment initially, but things are never as they appear,” Katharine said on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast in 2023. “And I’m in love with our love story, and that’s all that matters is that I’m in love with the love story.”
Instagram/Kristin Cavallari
Kristin Cavallari & Mark Estes
One thing that’s not unwritten? The way Kristin felt about her 13-year age gap with ex-boyfriend Mark Estes.
“Me dating a 24-year-old is not something that I was searching out,” The Hills alum said on a March 2024 episode of her podcast Let’s Be Honest. “It’s not something that I ever thought would ever happen. If you guys listen to the podcast, you know I thought 30-year-olds were too young for me.”
And while Kristin said she understands how “it looks to the outside world,” she insisted Mark is “not a typical 24-year-old” and that there’s more to a person than their birth year.
“I really think age is just a number,” she continued. “It’s what you’ve been through in your life, how you were raised. There are just so many factors that go into maturity other than age.”
But months later, Kristin shared she broke up with Mark.
“I just know long-term he needs to experience life,” she said on an October episode of her podcast. “He’s young. He is. I started to feel the age a bit just with life experience. I look back when I was 24 and how much life has happened for me in between then. Those are crucial years. Those are formative years. This is when you find yourself and he needs to be able to do that.”
Still, she called their romance “the best relationship” of her life and expressed hope that Mark will realize their split was for the best.
“I know that one day he will look back and he will understand it,” she added, “and I actually think one day he will thank me.”
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for MGM’s Seattle Community
Amal Clooney & George Clooney
When the Oscar winner first started crushing on the barrister, he wasn’t sure she’d feel the same way.
“I liked her, but I didn’t want to jump the shark on it,” George said on The Howard Stern Show about his early romance with Amal. “I couldn’t tell if she liked me. ‘Cause I’m 17 years older than her so she might’ve thought I was grandpa.”
However, it turns out she liked him right back and they wed in 2014.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Spotify
Nick Viall & Natalie Joy
Age is only a number for the Bachelor alum, who is 18 years older than his wife. As he put it during a March 2025 episode of his The Viall Files podcast, “When it comes to age gaps, looks matter.”
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