Why some younger men prefer older women: age is just another number when it comes to the heart

Age is just another number when it comes to the heart

HE was the boy next door, the neighborhood kid who was the perfect "play" brother to a young woman hoping to find her adult Prince Charming.

Lee Moore was only 17 when he first met Brenda Parson, a mature 23-year-old who treated him like a little brother. Who would have guessed then that this youth she once bought refreshments for would become her husband? He was so "young."

"It was something about her," says Moore, who is now 37. "She was beautiful. She was intelligent. Most of the women my age weren't women. They were girls." When talk turns to her husband, Brenda Moore can't contain herself. She's 43 years old, but she's giggling like a schoolgirl. "I always had this special feeling for him," she says. "I knew that whoever got him would be a very lucky woman. I didn't know that that woman would turn out to be me."

The unions of older women and younger men are becoming more commonplace. According to the 1980 U.S. Census, one out of every 10 marriages in the country involved older women and younger men. Bureau officials say the new Census figures are expected to show an increase in these marriages.