Kathy Griffin opened up about finding a romantic connection with a 23-year-old after getting divorced in her 60s.
“Speaking of curveballs, I accidentally fell in love with a 23-year-old. Because of his age, he didn’t have the usual sexism, misogyny, and biases that guys my age tend to have. He seemed to see me. I know that sounds really corny,” Griffin, 65, wrote in an essay for The Cut, which was published on Wednesday, December 31. “Oh God, it sounds so lame! But I felt really comfortable with him, and I felt very content just hanging out.”
Griffin noted that the romance “never could’ve lasted” despite their best efforts.
“We both knew that. But it was nice to know that my heart could still feel like that in my 60s, and it was nice to have the universe show me a guy that I really got a kick out of but also respected. I thought he was smart. I thought he could roll in different worlds,” she shared. “It sounds cliché, and maybe he was an old soul, but I don’t know, we just clicked. And that click thing? It doesn’t happen all that much. So even though there was a big age difference, I’m glad that we were able to capture it for a little while.”
While reflecting on the unnamed man, Griffin acknowledged that he was “too young” for her. “He told me he never wanted to have kids and that he could be with me forever. And I was like, ‘You don’t know that. You’re 23. You have no idea,’” she added. “I just wouldn’t do that to him. I mean, when I was 23, I thought I knew a lot of s***, but I didn’t. So I had to set that dove free.”
Griffin clarified that she “really was in love” with him.
“He touched my heart. He came along at a time in my life where I was like, ‘Men suck, and there’s only bad ones, and why do I pick the worst ones?’ And then he appeared, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, well, he’s cool, but it’s dumb, because he’s too young.’ We gave it a shot anyway, and we both went with it for a while, and then it came time to go,” she continued. “He made me feel sexy and special and smart and funny. It had a lot of the elements of what I think would’ve made a real, lasting relationship. He hadn’t been banged around that much. He’s so young that he didn’t have this baggage. And I just knew that my baggage was gonna get in the way.”
The comedian was previously married to Matt Moline for five years before their 2006 split. She was briefly linked to Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak but they parted ways in 2008. Griffin married Randy Bick in 2020 but the pair called it quits after five years of marriage.
“I haven’t been with a guy my age since I was in my 30s. I don’t know what it is, but my ex-husband was 18 years younger than me. Pretty much since then, I’ve only been asked out by younger guys. So I’m constantly called a cougar, but I don’t mind,” Griffin wrote on Wednesday. “I kind of am a cougar, which to me just means you have the freedom to choose the person that you want as opposed to the age bracket that society tells you is the only option for you.”
After her divorce from Bick, Griffin found herself on various dating apps where she recalled getting responses from guys “20 years younger” than her. “What am I gonna do? I can’t let this bangin’ body go to waste,” she quipped.
Griffin’s brief success with online dating hasn’t stopped her from still being “ambivalent” about casual romance.
“I think I’m a partner person, but I can no longer be a partner person with partners like the ones I’ve had,” she said. “The one nice surprise was that even after going through divorce, my sex drive never went away. These women who are like, ‘Oh my God, once I turned 50, if I never had sex again, that would be fine with me’ do not speak for me. My sex drive is the same as it’s always been, which is healthy.”
Griffin continued: “I’m not crazed or anything, I can’t do it five times a day, but I also don’t roll my eyes at the idea of having to have sex with my boyfriend or husband, or whatever. I’m like, ‘Let’s do this.’ Also, I am a condom girl. There’s one in my purse right now. It’s the lubed kind. I am ready, because you just never know when the right opportunity might arise, and at my age, there’s not a lot of reasons to say no.”
