Madonna may have turned 64 last month, but her face and her boyfriends remain stubbornly young. One is the result of modern medicine. The other comes from queen selection.
Since her 2008 divorce from Guy Ritchie (10 years her junior) and a brief affair with Alex Rodriguez (17 years her junior), the singer has been dating men at least 28 years her junior. Madonna’s newest beau, model Andrew Darnell, has been chasing her for 41 years. At 23, he falls right in between her 25-year-old daughter Lourdes Leon and 21-year-old son Rocco Ritchie.
This is no coincidence, a friend of Madonna told The Post: “She loves the idea of a man being younger than her daughter. It announces its desirability to the world. Some people may see her as a vampire feeding on the young, but in her mind she is forever youthful and this helps to prove it.”
Leonardo Di Caprio famously dumps women as soon as they turn 25, but even he has nothing on this cougar.
Going all the way back to Jean-Michel Basquiat (two years younger), whom Madonna dated after moving to New York City from Detroit in the early 1980s, the singer had a penchant for younger guys. Her two husbands – Ritchie and Sean Penn (two years younger) – were both her youngest and baby daddy Carlos Leon (eight years younger).
“I didn’t choose… to be in a relationship with a younger man. That’s exactly what happened,” she once told Nightline of then-boyfriend Brahiim Zaibat (28 years her junior). “See, that’s the romantic in me.”
Famously, Warren Beatty – 21 years her senior and her 1989-1990 beauty – is the only serious outlier. Apparently that was enough to keep Madonna off older men forever.
Here then are the toy boys of the one-off boy toys.
Andrew Darnell
Age difference: 41 years
On September 4, Madonna was photographed starring alongside 23-year-old IMG model and actor Sylvester in the HBOMax series “Betty.” After recording Nigerian musician REMA at Irving Plaza, the two beat Mr. French – and French-kiss between bites of truffle fries. It wasn’t their first lip-lock either. For a Paper Magazine cover shoot that debuted last month, the singer touched his tongue with Darnell and licked his nipples. After posting outtakes from the shoot on Instagram, she boldly wrote, “Everything in good taste.”
Ahlamalik Williams
Age difference: 36 years
Williams, a backup dancer for Madonna’s Madame X tour, first met her in 2015, presumably at work. They started dating in 2019 when he was 25. She is even older than his father – who had no problem with it: “Love knows no age,” said Drue Williams wisely. “My son lives la vida loca.” Things were serious enough that Madonna took the dancer with her family to Italy last year to celebrate her 63rd birthday, where she kissed on the street and posted holiday photos to Instagram. When they broke up last April, a friend told The Sun, “Because they were working on other things, it was hard to keep the romance alive.”
Kevin Sampaio
Age difference: 28 years
The group’s old man, Kevin Sampaio, was all 31 when Madonna, then 59, made their relationship public in 2017. They were in a relationship for over a year before they were spotted together in Portugal. A source told Radar the initial secrecy was because she “wanted to make sure she could trust him”. Another on-the-job meet-cute, Madonna and the model got in touch on the set of her “Bitch, I’m Madonna” video, in which he played her love interest. Life imitated art when she took him on a trip to Africa where she adopted twins, Estere and Stella. As the couple’s relationship blossomed, an insider explained to Radar: The singer’s preference for younger guys: “Men her age just can’t keep up.” Yet Sampaio quietly disappeared from Madonna’s ray of light in 2019.
Aboubakar “Brooklin” Soumahoro
Age difference: 33 years
Born in Ivory Coast, Soumahoro met Madonna at a party in 2015. He was barely 24 to 57 years old, modeling, but he was able to make ends meet by also working at Harrods department store in London. Shortly after the couple met, he ditched his day job and was spotted on her “Rebel Heart” tour. It got so cozy that Soumahoro moved from London to Madonna’s NYC home, getting close to her kids, and even pushing to help raise them. But, as sources told Vidak For Congress, it caused domestic friction at a time when Madonna was arguing over custody issues with former husband Ritchie, leading to the boy toy’s parting in 2017.
Timor Steffens
Age difference: 29 years
Madonna and dancer Steffens first came into the limelight together in January 2014, after meeting fashion designer Valentino in a Swiss chalet. she was 55; he was a ripe 26. But it got off to a shaky start. Shortly after they became an item, Madonna was dancing aboard a yacht in Steffens’ hometown of Rotterdam when she took a spill and ended up on crutches. Perhaps that was a harbinger of things to come: the relationship only lasted seven months. Madonna, her children and Steffens were reportedly on a European swing when she decided things were running their course. Son Rocco celebrated his birthday on August 11 when, according to Us, “Madonna politely asked Timor to take his luggage and leave.”
brahim zaibat
Age difference: 28 years
In September 2010, Madonna, 52, asked Brahim Zaibat, 24, to dance at a promotional event for her Material Girl clothing line — and he got into her heart. Two months later, she took the devout Muslim to a Kabbalah meeting; two years later, according to the Daily Mail, she said he fulfilled her “in many ways.” Officially, the three-year relationship fell apart due to “conflicting schedules.” But things weren’t helped by the fact that Zaibat was reportedly having an affair – before he and the singer knew each other – with Madonna’s trainer. The singer shot to a concert audience in the Philippines: “I once had a Filipino trainer – this beautiful girl … But she f-turned my boyfriend, so I fired her.”
jesus luzu
Age difference: 29 years
In December 2008, Madonna, then 50 years old and recently divorced from Ritchie, did a photo shoot in Brazil for W magazine. Also on set was Jesus Luz, just 21, who was cast as her lover and then the role ended up off-camera as well. His modeling career took off thanks to the association with the singer, and he transformed into a DJ and even embraced her beloved Kabbalah. Unfortunately, Luz’s mother, a hairdresser in Rio De Janeiro who was herself 14 years younger than Madonna, didn’t embrace the relationship or the age difference. When it ended after 14 months, one of the singer’s friends said, “How it lasted even for a year seems like a miracle to many people.”