Sam Taylor-Johnson Shares How Her and Husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kids Feel About Their 23-Year Age Gap

After more than a decade of marriage, Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson‘s 23-year-old gap still spurs questions. 

As the often-told story goes, Sam, a director and three-time BAFTA nominee, was 42 years old when she met her now-longtime husband Aaron on the set of her 2009 film, Nowhere Boy. At the time, Aaron was 18 years old. By the time of the movie’s premiere, they were engaged and later became wife and husband in 2012. In the course of their relationship, they’ve welcomed two daughters Wylda Rae, 13, and Romy Hero, 12, joining Sam’s older daughters Angelica, 26, and Jessie Phoenix, 17, from her previous marriage to art dealer Jay Jopling. 

June 21 will mark 12 years of marriage for Sam and Aaron, a fate — according to Sam — that would not have been possible had she doubted them. 

“If I had questioned anything, it would never have worked,” she tells The Guardian in a new interview. 

Adds the 57-year-old filmmaker, “I’m a great believer that the heart overrides everything. Love conquers all.” 

Aaron, 33, has separately addressed the subject in interviews, recently telling Rolling Stone U.K., “You’re doing something too quickly for someone else? I don’t understand that. What speed are you supposed to enjoy life at? It’s bizarre to me.”

And despite any public misgivings about their age difference, the naysayers have not reached their kids. 

When asked if their daughters face prejudice, Sam tells The Guardian, “Not really. Or, if so, I don’t think they care. They see two loving, happy parents, so it doesn’t really register. They just think people are a bit mean, or mad.”

Their busy lives as parents also helps keep their minds focused on something other than the attention. “There are times where it’s uncomfortable,” Sam tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Most of the time we zone it out and stay pretty private. We tend to retreat. Kids and school runs keep you pretty grounded.”

In fact, according to Sam, their age gap never comes up between them at all. 

“We’re a bit of an anomaly,” she acknowledges to The Guardian, “but it’s that thing: after 14 years you just think, surely by now it doesn’t really matter?”

What does matter to fans is the depiction of Amy Winehouse in the upcoming biopic, Back to Black, directed by Sam and due out in the United States on May 17. Starring Industry‘s Marisa Abela as the beloved British songstress, who died in 2011 at age 27, curious fans have already gotten to see Abela in character thanks to newly released trailers. 

Mark Ronson, who co-produced her monumental 2006 album, Back to Black, gave the script his approval in a recent interview with ET. 

“I haven’t seen the film. I read the script,” Ronson told ET at the 2024 Oscars. “I love the script and the way, like, it really got… Amy was so funny and they really nailed her humor.”

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