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.”

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 can lead to “a dangerous dynamic.”

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 Heather Christie—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.