Romantic couples with a large age gap often raise eyebrows. When it comes to our own relationships, both men and women prefer someone their own age, but are open to someone 10-15 years their junior or senior. While there is variation across cultures in the size of the difference in age-gap couples, all cultures demonstrate the age-gap couple phenomenon. In some non-Western countries, the average age gap is much larger than in Western countries. For example, in some African countries about 30% of unions reflect a large age gap.

The 35-year-old woman, Akua, whose marriage to a 97-year-old man, Agya, in West Africa went v!ral online a couple of days ago has explained why the marriage was unavoidable. She told local news outlets that though poverty was one of the factors that compelled her to enter into a relationship with the man in the first place, which has now culminated into marriage, they have loved each other and bonded well over the period. She further disclosed that unknown to most people who made a mockery of their recent knot-tying, they have been together for 11 years and had four kids and they have only decided to make their union official now.

“We have been together for some time. We had what is called in our local language as knocking and thus lived together for so many years. And so he has loved him since. We have four kids but I brought one child from my previous relationship,” she narrated. “The man I had the first kid with my previous relationship never took care of the child and so as a young lady who had nothing, this man was the one taking care of my child and so I had no choice than to marry him. I loved him and he proposed to me and we married because I needed someone who will take care of me and my husband does exactly that,” Akua told The Pulse.

If you care to know, no amount of mockery will make the couple give up on making each other happy. Akua said they are focusing on enjoying their union rather than what outsiders who hardly know anything about them are saying. The wedded couple trended on social media after images of their wedding were uploaded to the internet.