Kirsty McKenzie was living in a small Spanish village full of retirees in her late twenties when she was introduced by a mutual friend to Sue and Dave during a lonely Covid lockdown. The couple were in their eighties and had bought a second home in Estepona years before Kirsty arrived in 2020. “I went to dinner with them and after about three bottles of wine we had become fast friends,” says McKenzie who, nearly 30 and single, had been missing her family and was scared she’d scuppered her chances of one of her own by moving abroad for work. The trio chatted about everything from politics to romance. “I really counted on them as surrogate grandparents. They calmed my anxieties about what it means to live a well-rounded life.” They’ve stayed in contact ever since. “We all love to travel. Love to eat. So, we’re often bonding over late nights in tapas bars. There’s virtually no limit to how much white wine either of them can put back. It’s always ‘one for the road’ and Dave repeats that until 3am.”
Age-gap friendships are common. Nearly four in 10 adults have a close friend from a different generation, with more than half of Britons reporting a friendship with a 10-year age gap, according to YouGov. Although romantic age-gap relationships routinely prompt scandal and steal headlines (just look at Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Brad Pitt, each of whom is with either a significantly younger or older woman), platonic friendship across the generational divides is a surprisingly common part of ordinary people’s lives, too.
