People who see Simon and Raymas for the first time often assume that they’re father and son owing to the fact that Simon is 53 while Raymas is 23.
But they’re actually a couple and they’ve gotten used to shrugging off judgments from others about their 30-year age gap.
In this interview, they talk about how they make their unique relationship work:
[rumble video_id=v68myl domain_id=u7nb2]
Video credit: Rumble
The pair, from Melbourne, Australia, first met on the dancefloor of Sidney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras in an encounter that they never thought would blossom into a loving relationship.
Simon said: “When I first met Raymas, of course, I thought I can’t date someone 30 years younger than me.”
But despite his misgivings, Simon kept seeing Raymas and deeper feelings developed.
“As I got to know him, I realized there’s really not that much difference, we feel a lot of things the same, we think the same,” Simon added.
Simon only dared to take the plunge after Raymas asked him to make their relationship official. The pair officially started dating mid-2017.
Simon said: “I gave it about 10 seconds thought and said; ‘Hell yeah, why not, let’s give this a go.’”
While they have been happy with each other, the outside world hasn’t always been so accepting. That’s no surprise, considering that with their 30-year age gap, Simon and Raymas are often mistaken to be father and son.
“People always mistake him as my dad,” Raymas said.
But even more than the age gap is the fact that Simon runs a successful business so people often presume that Raymas is just in it for the money.
“I guess that’s what they think, it doesn’t really bother me,” Raymas said. “I do live a luxurious life.”
To show how they are able to weather through these judgments, the couple recently put up a YouTube channel.
The videos show them enjoying holidays and fast cars. Raymas even jokes about being a “sugar baby” with online judgments just a few comments away.
“There’s always a lot of positive comments, but we get a lot of negative comments as well,” Raymas said.
“People judging me for being with him and people judging him for being with me. It comes from both directions.”
But they’re not living their lives for the trolls and the comments have not affected their relationship in a negative way.
Simon said: “Love us or ignore us, as Oscar Wilde said, ‘the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity.'”
More importantly, the people who get to know them personally find out just how serious they are about each other.
Their friend, Tory, added: “You know when you see someone and there’s a certain look between the couple, how they almost finish each other’s conversations.
“You realize wow, they’re really in tune with each other, there’s really a feeling there.”
Simon and Raymas are happy together and neither the age gap nor negative comments will change that.
Ryamas said: “Ever since meeting Simon, he’s brought so much joy and love into my life that I just hadn’t been feeling in a long time and it has literally been the best two and a half years of my life.”
Replaced!