I’m 20 and live with my 44-year-old boyfriend and his two teenagers who call me their ‘step-mum’ – trolls say I look like one of his children
A 20-year-old woman who is a stepmother to her 44-year-old boyfriend’s children has called on her viewers to “normalize the age difference in the relationship and become a stepmother at a young age.”
Content creator Ellie Liptrot, 20, met her 44-year-old partner Mark on a night out in late 2021, when she was just 18.
The couple were introduced by a mutual friend and were together for the past two years, moving to their Wales home after just a few months together.
Soon after, in June 2022, Mark’s two children also moved into the family home and started calling 20-year-old Ellie their “stepmother.”
In a ‘get ready with me’ video on TikTok, Ellie explained that she has received a lot of criticism from people who claim she doesn’t deserve the title of stepmother because she isn’t married to Mark.
Twenty-year-old Ellie Liptrot (photo from right) has been in a relationship with her boyfriend Mark (photo from left) since 2021, who is 23 years older than her.
Social media creator Ellie, pictured center next to her two stepchildren, begs her viewers to ‘normalize the age gap relationship and become a stepmother at a young age’
Critics of the relationship have often compared Ellie to her stepdaughter (pictured left) who is 15, with some even saying the teenager looks older than her father’s partner.
In a ‘get ready with me video’ from New Year’s Eve last year, Ellie (pictured next to her stepson) explained that she has received a lot of criticism from people who claim she doesn’t deserve the title of stepmother because she isn’t married to Mark
Ellie met her 44-year-old partner, Mark, pictured, on a night out in late 2021, when she was just 18
After just a few months together, Ellie moved in with Mark and the two lived together in a house in Wales
She said: ‘A lot of people tell me I’m not a stepmother because Mark and I aren’t married, but at the end of the day, if you look after the kids, if you look after them, if you care for them, if you make tea for them every night cooks, if you go out and buy them things – why aren’t you a stepmother?’
Although Ellie says she is now “besties” with her partner’s children, she describes meeting Izzy, his eldest daughter, as “quite awkward” to begin with.
While the pair look content, Ellie regularly receives critical comments on her videos and once described them as ‘the most hated couple on the internet’ due to their age difference.
Critics of the relationship have often compared Ellie to her stepdaughter, who is 15, with some even saying the teenager looks older than her father’s partner.
Others have even gone so far as to say that Ellie looks like she is one of Mark’s three children.
Although her relationship with Mark’s family has always flourished, Ellie said that being with a partner so much older than her had caused tension with her own family, with whom she is currently not on good terms.
Before becoming a full-time content creator, Ellie worked as a dental nurse pre-COVID before taking a temporary office job.
In 2023, experts revealed the ‘ideal age gap’ for people who want their relationship to last – and that’s bad news for couples born five years apart.
Critics of the relationship have often compared Ellie to her stepdaughter, who is 15, with some even saying the teenager looks older than her father’s partner.
A resurfaced study from Emory University in Atlanta found that couples with a five-year age difference are 18 percent more likely to break up than partners closer in age.
The chance of divorce then rose to 95 percent of couples with an age difference of twenty years.
In 2014, researchers at the institution analyzed 3,000 people as part of their study.
Researchers found that the ‘ideal’ age difference between couples was one year or less.
The study concluded that the risk of divorce dropped to just three percent for couples born within twelve months or less of each other.