Credit: SWNS / Alex Michael
A divorced mum-of-two looking for love on Tinder was shocked when she fell for a man 23 years her junior - after forgetting to change her age limit settings.
Rachel Caudele, 48, and Alex Michael, 25 - who are more than two decades apart in age - met on the app in 2020.
The pair hit it off, and after a whirlwind romance where Rachel flew to New York, US, from Texas, US, to meet Alex for the first time - where they had an ''instant connection''.
Now both settled and living together in Austin, Texas, US, they claim "age is just a number" and they are ''rock solid'' - despite some initial ups and downs.
It wasn't all plain sailing as the pair nearly split when Rachel found out Alex, who works as a website creator for pharmaceutical companies, was messaging other women.
But they are back on track and are now fully committed to each, despite disapproval from some relatives.
A divorced mum-of-two looking for love on Tinder was shocked when she fell for a man 23 years her junior - after forgetting to change her age limit settings.
Rachel Caudele, 48, and Alex Michael, 25 - who are more than two decades apart in age - met on the app in 2020.
The pair hit it off, and after a whirlwind romance where Rachel flew to New York, US, from Texas, US, to meet Alex for the first time - where they had an ''instant connection''.
Now both settled and living together in Austin, Texas, US, they claim "age is just a number" and they are ''rock solid'' - despite some initial ups and downs.
It wasn't all plain sailing as the pair nearly split when Rachel found out Alex, who works as a website creator for pharmaceutical companies, was messaging other women.
But they are back on track and are now fully committed to each, despite disapproval from some relatives.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00A lot of people think I'm like a sugar baby. I'm not that lucky. That's what I always say.
00:04I never envisioned, and I don't think he did either, that this would be a relationship.
00:09In 2020, I had just recently ended my marriage. A friend of mine convinced me to get on a
00:31dating app. He had actually DM'd me. For some reason, I just kept coming back to his picture
00:37on his DM, but I thought he had really kind eyes. We started chatting, kind of had this fun banter
00:43with each other, and we found we had so much in common. Our personalities are super similar.
00:50The age question came up. I was 45 at the time, so I was like, you know, I'm 45.
00:58And no, I was 45. Was I? I said, well, how are you doing? He said,
01:0423. And I was like, whoa, 23. That's way too young. I had never been with an older woman
01:10before. I was a little curious, and I happened to change my age range on Hinge, the app that
01:16we met on. She was super cool and just genuine. You know, she's more than just like a pretty face.
01:28She offered to fly to New York to see me. We both love to travel. I never envisioned,
01:33and I don't think he did either, that this would be a relationship. But when we did Miami,
01:39that's when I realized that I was, you know, I had real feelings for him.
01:44January of 2021, I came and visited her in Houston, where she was living at the time,
01:49and she asked if I wanted to move in with her. Everything fell into place perfectly. I got the
01:55remote job that week. I got a suitcase, and I was like, yeah, I'm just going to Houston.
02:01I just never came back. We just put out a silly little video of tips for dating a cougar.
02:14And I had students, they were like, your TikTok is blowing up. So I was like, take it down,
02:21take it down. I'm like, let's just let it hit a million views. And she's like, take the video
02:26down. So we had to take it down. We were trying to do more like, boyfriend, girlfriend, dating
02:33content. His side of the family, they don't accept me. And they think that I'm some kind of a cougar
02:46grooming him, sexual predator. A lot of people think I'm like a sugar baby. I'm not that lucky.
02:53That's what I always say. That's not such a big deal on my side of the family. They make fun,
02:58but they're also, you know, they're more, they're respectful of it. I'm reaching that point where
03:02I just don't like, whatever, like, I'm a man, a grown man. This is what I want to do. I'm happy
03:07with it. And that's that. We've had lots of ups and downs, but I think we're getting, especially
03:13very lately, we're in a really great place. You should be able to live your life. And if you find
03:18something so real and so unique as what we have, you should not deprive yourself of that
03:25happiness just because of what other people think.