By only dating women 25 and under, the actor, 49, risks turning into the Playboy founder. Photo / Getty Images
By only dating women 25 and under, the actor, 49, risks turning into the Playboy founder. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
Uh-oh Leo. Time’s up. I mean really up. Put a ring on it for the love of ash – well whichever gorgeous young thing you’re stepping out with right this minute.
Even DiCaprio’s most devoted fans – say, the ones who watched Critters 3 all the way through – would be hard-pressed to defend the Wolf of Wall Streetstar against the latest broadside levelled at his personal life.
Namely that his predilection for young women is turning him into the “new Hef” as in Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner. And given this critique came from none other than his widow Crystal Hefner, 37, who endured rather than enjoyed the last years of the priapic 91-year-old’s life, she knows whereof she speaks.
Hugh Hefner and Crystal Hefner attend Playboy Mansion's Annual Halloween Bash at The Playboy Mansion on October 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Photo / Getty Images
She was referencing not Hefner the sexual libertarian and pioneering publisher who was considered the epitome of cool in the Swinging Sixties – but Hefner the withered, pitiful control freak, whose bony hands clutched to youth and beauty as though to stave off his own mortality.
Talk about getting the ick. Sure, down the years we’ve enjoyed the “these albums are older than DiCaprio’s new girlfriend” memes and the “I honestly feel bad for Leonardo DiCaprio. Imagine being in your 50s and still having to go to prom” tweets.
It was impossible not to snigger at the graph meticulously charting the ages of his love interests back in 2022, when he was 47 and had apparently never dated a woman over the age of 25. The chart spanned more than 20 years and eight relationships from 1999 to 2022 and revealed the average age of his girlfriends was 22.9.
Down the years, he’s been linked with models Naomi Campbell and Helena Christensen. He went out with model Gisele Bundchen for five years between 2000 and 2005, splitting up when he was 30 and she was 25.
Leonardo DiCaprio, nominee Best Actor in a Leading Role for "The Aviator" and Gisele Bundchen Photo / Getty Images
Then he had a relationship with model (natch) Bar Rafaeli for the next five years, splitting up when she too was 25.
Fast forward to 2016 and by then aged 41, he briefly dated model and actress Kelly Rohrbach, but not for long because (gah!) she turned 25. From 2017-2022 he was loved up with, yes you’ve guessed it, another model, Camilla Morrone, but alas – she too reached her Best Before Date, and aged 25, they went their separate ways.
Meanwhile over and over the world wondered the same thing. No, not what attracted all those lithe 20-somethings to one of the world’s most eligible bachelors? What did they talk about once they had coupled up?
Leonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriend Camila Morrone, below DJ Snake attend the UEFA Champions League Group C match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Liverpool FC at Parc des Princes stadium on November 28, 2018 in Paris, France. Photo / Getty Images
Not the future, at any rate. According to a Hollywood “source” quoted in the New York Post, Leo historically prefers younger women because they aren’t ready to start a family: “By the time the girls reach 25, they’re looking for more, they’re looking to get married and settle down”.
That would certainly account for him typically breaking things off once his girlfriend reached her quarter-century. He probably thinks it’s the right thing to do, but the optics don’t look great.
As Gisele Bundchen wrote in her memoir: “No longer numbing myself with smoking, drinking and too much work, I was becoming more and more aware of things that I’d chosen not to look at. Was I alone in wanting to do some serious soul-searching while he stayed the same? In the end, unfortunately, the answer was yes.”
Here we are in 2024, and DiCaprio will turn 50 shortly. He’s currently stepping out with model Vittoria Ceretti, whom he reportedly met at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Apparently, he is smitten. Even more apparently, she is 25. Could she be the one?
I’m awaiting the announcement with bated breath – but I haven’t yet bought a hat.
