For Halloween this year, Billie Eilish dressed up as a baby. The singer wore a peaked bonnet printed with teddy bears and a matching bib. Her newly announced boyfriend Jesse Rutherford – the lead vocalist of the alt-indie band The Neighbourhood – came dressed as an elderly man. He wore a bald cap, his neck tattoos peeking out from under a cardigan and braces. He looked like a cross between Machine Gun Kelly and Benjamin Button. This odd rendition of a couple’s costume drew immediate backlash from Eilish’s fans, who believed she was poking fun at their widespread concerns about the pair. For Eilish is 20 years old. Rutherford is 31.
“Sick and twisted” and “creepy” are among the words typically used by fans to describe the couple. On Twitter, fans have alleged – based on little actual evidence – that Rutherford holds inappropriate amounts of power in the relationship, since Eilish was a long-time fan of his band. One Twitter user wrote: “This s*** is crazy to me. Even despite the age gap (which is concerning), she was a fan of him from a young age. That’s a natural power imbalance.” Another concerned fan wrote: “Jesse was graduating high school while Billie was in second grade. I just don’t want Billie to get taken advantage of. I get they’re both adults but he’s 31 and she can’t even drink yet.”
