Age ain’t nothing but a number, right? Well that’s certainly the case for several couples that have been going viral on TikTok.
When it comes to these unlikely connections 62-year-old Cheryl Mccain and her 25-year-old husband, Quran Mccain, have been taking over these internet streets.
The couple met when Quran was just 15-years-old working at Dairy Queen and discovered a friendship that blossomed into romance 8 years later.
Ignoring major age gaps seems to be on trend these days. In fact, several couples with similar stories are stepping into The Shade Room and showing off their relationships loud and proud, despite the fact that many of them have had to deal with online hate, disapproval from their families, and much more.
Could these old and young match-ups be just for show? Or Is this love the real deal?
The Shade Room investigates…
They’ve been called sugar babies, sugar daddies, cougars. The stigma of either dating older or younger is always going to be there, from Cher and Alexander Edwards 40-year age gap, to Eddie Murphy and Paige Butcher’s 18-year gap.
But there’s a newfound confidence for such couples – especially on TikTok – and they’re putting it all out there for social media to see, and we wanted to know why?
With three million followers on TikTok, people are eating up Cheryl and Quran McCain.
“I’m 62 and (he’s) 25, so there’s a 37-year age gap,” Cheryl tells TSR Investigates’ Justin Carter. “It was pretty much an accident and God” she added.
They met when he was just 15-years-old. Cheryl’s adult son was the owner of Dairy Queen in Rome, Georgia where Quran was working at the time.
But the two really began to hit it off eight years later when Quran started helping Cheryl with her TikTok content.
“I told her, ‘I have feelings for you,'” Quran said. “That’s basically the point where the relationship began.”
Cheryl said she was under the impression that the two were just friends, but has since embraced the May to December romance, stating “he makes me feel like no other.”
“You know what? It’s the best decision I ever made in my entire life,” Cheryl added.
They’ve been happily married now for a year, but not without hurdles. They regularly receive hate messages on social media, disapproval from their families, and speculation around Quran’s sexuality, to which they both scoffed at.
“She got that WAP, waterfall… Niagara,” Quran said. “And we ain’t even discovered the whole ocean yet.”
Quran went on to say that he didn’t see her age, and revealed he lost his virginity to her.
And now they’re making money off of their unusual romance, and even started an OnlyFans page. When asked if they make a lot of money from it, Quran laughed and answered in the affirmative.
There is no OnlyFans account for 24-year-old Semie Atadja of New Jersey, who is currently in a relationship with not one, but three much older men. The unusual relationship arrangement takes her to the beaches of the Dominican Republic.
“I’m grown and I do what I want,” Atadja said.
She met her first older man, a 62-year-old, five years ago on a singles website.
Fast forward to 2023, and Atadja enjoys her days on the beaches of Dominican Republic with a 62-year-old, a 76-year-old, and an 84-year-old man.
“I enjoy all their company… I guess I am a sugar baby. I like being taken care of, I’m a housewife… That’s what I like to do.”
When asked about the criticisms she has faced, Semie says “if they could (do what she’s doing), they would. But they can’t, so they don’t.”
“It’s always someone with insufficient funds. I have a card, and every time I swipe it, it works,” she went on to say.
But it appears to be of no issue with her older sugar daddies, who say they are totally fine with the arrangement.
Meanwhile, 53-year-old Joseph Zavattero of Dallas, Texas says he waited decades to find the perfect sugar baby.
He eventually found her, with that her being 28-year-old Shardae Ray, making for a 25-year age difference.
They met on Match.com before going viral on TikTok.
“I got engaged within four months of knowing Joseph,” Ray said. “When you know, you know. And he didn’t even ask me to move in, I just moved myself in.”
Zavaterro said one of the things he’s learned from dating a Black woman: don’t touch her hair.
“She spends hundreds of dollars a month (on her hair)” he says.
To the haters, Joseph said that Shardae is about to be his wife, and doesn’t necessarily characterize their relationship as a sugar daddy dynamic.
What do you say, Roomies? Are you with the idea of age-gaps in relationships? Or do you view it as a more predatory form of dating?
