Celebrity cougars

Courteney Cox-Arquette makes light of it in her new series Cougar Town, and Gabriel Solis made it fashionable when she did the dirty with her gardener in Desperate Housewives, but we can’t help notice how many Hollywood women tend to be dating younger men nowadays. And good for them! We celebrate the celebrity cougar in her many forms…

handbag.com dictionary:
Cougar (noun) A cougar is a 35+ female who is on the “hunt” for a much younger male.

Sam Taylor-Wood

Film director Sam Taylor-Wood (42) announced in early January 2010 that she was expecting a child with her 19-year-old fiancé, Aaron Johnson. A spokesman for the pair said, “We can confirm that Sam is pregnant with her and Aaron’s first child. Both are very, very happy.”  The pair met while Aaron played John Lennon in Taylor-Wood’s film Nowhere Boy, which was released at the end of last year. They fell in love while filming and were engaged in October 2009. When discussing the large age gap between the two Taylor-Wood has said, “I’ve always lived my life as fearlessly as possible.”

Demi Moore

Perhaps the most obvious celebrity cougar, Demi Moore, 47, is 15 years her husband Ashton Kutcher’s senior. Demi says she can’t understand the fuss about the age gap. She told W magazine, “I’m certainly not the first person to be in a relationship with a younger man, but somehow I was plucked out as a bit of a poster girl.” Of course you’re a poster girl Demi! You’re married to one of the hottest guys in Hollywood, and you’re on the wrong side of 40! Good going! But Demi won’t stand for being called a Cougar, “I’d prefer to be called Puma,” she joked with W magazine.

handbag.com dictionary:
Puma (noun) Penned by Demi Moore, a puma is a 40+ female who has caught a younger male, married him and now they tweet about how happy they are. A lot.

Susan Sarandon

One of the pioneering celebrity cougars, actress Susan Sarandon, 63, recently split up with her long-time boyfriend Tim Robbins, and has been spotted out on the town since enjoying her new found freedom. Sarandon and Robbins, 51, were in a relationship from 1988 to 2009. When they started dating Susan was 42 and Robbins was 30.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey married MTV star Nick Cannon in the Bahamas in May 2008. The pair wed in secret in front of family and friends at Carey’s house in Eleuthera. Cannon, who is 11 years younger than 39 year-old Carey shelled out £1.5m for the 17-carat ring spotted on Mariah’s left hand. The pair met when Cannon directed a video for the Mariah‘s single Bye Bye. It was the second marriage for Mariah; she split from record executive Tommy Mottola in 1998, after five years of marriage.

Jennifer Aniston

We all watch Jennifer Aniston’s love life with morbid fascination. It looked as though the actress had found happiness with on-off boyfriend John Mayer when the pair first started dating after meeting at the Academy Awards in 2008. Aniston, 40, and Mayer, 32, quickly became a “hot couple” in the world of celebrity journalism despite their eight-year age gap. They’ve since gone their separate ways. For how long? Who knows?

Sheryl Crow

Of course being a cougar doesn’t always go as smoothly as you planned, as Sheryl Crow found out when she broke up with Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in 2006. In his first interview about the split, Armstrong, 37, complained that the Grammy Award-winning singer, who is nine years his senior, nagged him to set a wedding date and start a family and so he ended their three-year relationship. “We were up against her biological clock – that pressure is what cracked it. Because if somebody wants a child, man, that’s the greatest gift you can give a woman. So who are you to stand there and say I don’t want one?’

Madonna

Everyone was shocked when Madonna stepped out with new boyfriend Jesus Luz, and not just because the ink had barely dried on her divorce papers. Madonna has just reached 51 years old and Jesus is a 22-year-old Brazilian model, making the age gap between the two a whopping 29 years. Madonna met the model on a photoshoot for W magazine in Rio de Janeiro. She then asked him to join her on tour in San Paolo. Reports in September suggested that Madonna was going to make her toyboy husband number three.

Sadie Frost

Sadie Frost, Jude Law’s ex-wife, mother of two, one of Kate Moss’ many BFFs, and sometime actress, has been known to have a thing for much younger men. After her relationship with Jude turned frosty the 41-year-old actress bagged herself a toy boy, Jackson Scott, who was 16 years younger than her. When that didn’t work out she dated around, including a brief fling with TV presenter Alex Zane. Most recently she got it together with 23-year-old musician Kristian Marr. Kristian then reportedly dumped her for 16-year-old Pixie Geldof. Ouch.

Halle Berry

Halle Berry, 41, was voted the sexiest woman in the world in 2008, and bagged herself a boyfriend 10 years younger than her in the form of model Gabriel Aubry. As she describes the encounter, “There were, like, pheromones flying off the walls.“  Berry and Aubry are now both proud parents of a daughter, Nahla Ariela.

Teri Hatcher

When Teri went solo to the wedding of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria she reportedly left absolutely smitten with Parker’s NBA team mate, 28-year-old Baron Davis. At the time Teri was 42, making Baron 14 years her junior. Proving that Teri’s no desperate housewife.

Kim Cattrall

Much like her character Samantha in Sex And The City Kim Cattrall has a reputation for being a bit of a cougar herself. Once her relationship ended with her third husband (who co-wrote The Art Of The Female Orgasm with her) Kim found herself in the arms of many a younger man. It’s rumoured that Kim dated basketball players Steve France and Cutino Mobley, before shacking up with Canadian chef, Alan Wyse, 23 years her junior.