Pam and Liam, Meryl and Martin: 2025 Is the Year of Twilight Romance

Ah, young love — the hormone-fueled circus show glamorized by many of our favorite rom-coms. From the real-life childhood sweethearts of our hometowns to young, heart-eyed Hollywood celebrities documenting their trysts via scantily-clad social media posts featuring their dolphin-smooth bodies, society has long been infatuated by the dramatic ups and downs of youthful relationships.

Thankfully, 2025 has brought Us the antidote to young love’s often fleeting enchantment: Twilight Romance. Thanks to older celebrity couples — rumored and confirmed — those of Us who recognize the benefit of dating in earnest when you have some life experience under your belt have been reminded that our sexual currency doesn’t depreciate, but in fact only appreciates with age.

There’s a reason society can’t get enough of new couple Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson. Hidden behind the pair’s playful, witty banter and palpable infatuation is proof that there’s a hot, steamy, romance-novel worthy life waiting for you after even the most painful of dating histories and unfathomable types of loss.

A bikini-clad Playmate who at one time was treated as simple tabloid fodder can — and has — defied persistent Hollywood ageism and gatekeeping both personally and professionally, finding success and, it appears, love at the tender age of 58.

For those of Us who have been fed the lie that our aging female bodies are inherently less than, or that the self-assuredness that comes with age makes Us less desirable, Anderson — a self-described hopeless romantic who has reinvented herself before our eyes after five failed marriages — is more than just a nearly 60-year-old woman living her best, makeup-free life. She’s the filament in the flashing light that says: “Your life isn’t over after 40. It’s just beginning.”

So is Neeson, a dedicated husband and father who lost his wife of 15 years, Natasha Richardson, unexpectedly after a tragic skiing accident. Watching this towering, 6’ 4’’ statue of a man — who at one point claimed he was done with dating and “past all that” — transform into a giddy school boy in the presence of his The Naked Gun costar is the thing real-life rom-coms are made of.

Hearts, like limbs, can mend, no matter how long it takes or how lost we can feel. Even when we’ve seemingly given up on romance, it can find Us. So let the teens and tweens celebrate Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s high school-like love and shoot “widower finds a second chance at happily ever after” straight into my veins.

It’s the same reason why so many of Us are hoping, wishing, praying — and not above sacrificing small animals to make it true (just kidding, Peta… and Pam!) — that Martin Short and Meryl Streep are, in fact, bumping uglies.

Every onset kiss, public appearance and concert non-date-but-it-looks-like-a-date is a parallel to what could very well be possible in our own, garbage fire dating lives. Those of Us who prioritized our careers can still “have it all” in our twilight years. Instead of being punished for our unapologetic ambition, we can, in fact, be rewarded for it by way of an adorable, funny little man who admits he gets “nervous” around Us mid-flirt.

Sure, those of Us recovering from a failed marriage or another disastrous Bumble date could sulk in our oversized sweats, eating a pint of ice cream while re-watching the season 9 Vanderpump Rules reunion to yell at Tom Sandoval — or we could simply be like Meryl! We can throw outdated social stereotypes to the wind! Acknowledge our innate, menopausal sexual prowess! Date! Shamelessly! Passionately! And, if we feel like it, we can even have our publicists deny it all!

It’s why The Golden Bachelor and The Golden Bachelorette, even for all their televised blunders, are such a hit. Because yes, even with all our lived experience, past relationship faux pas, hopefully somewhat well-adjusted older children and established, high-powered careers, those of Us in the so-called “post-prime” of our lives can still bring the same level of drama, intrigue and delicious mess as the youngins. In fact, we can make their youth-fueled shenanigans look like, well, child’s play.

It’s why Us remains obsessed with Keanu Reeves and his partner Alexandra Grant, who went public with their romance when the John Wick actor was 55 and she was 46. Or Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his wife, Sam, who at 58 has nabbed and kept one of the hottest men in Hollywood. Or the Barbara Streisand and James Brolin, who met when Streisand was 54 and said “I do” when she was 56.

At a moment when young, dewy-faced trad wives are dominating TikTok and male rights activists are running for office while denouncing the so-called dangers of successful, older women, Hollywood is rolling out the red carpet for couples who prove that age is just an illusion and Us women don’t have an expiration date.

In fact, like love itself, we’re timeless.