Bill Maher Gets Defensive About Only Dating Younger Women

Bill Maher is sounding a bit defensive about the fact that he only dates younger women.

During an appearance on the Fly on the Wall podcast with SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade, the Real Time With Bill Maher host insisted that only being attracted to women who aren’t “age appropriate” doesn’t make him a bad guy.

After commenting that he and Spade—who have never married—were the “last two bachelors,” Maher, 68, said they should do the The Golden Bachelor.

“But like our real lives, not with an age-appropriate woman, because that’s boring,” he said. “Because you know what? The appropriate age for a relationship is one that works.”

A quick perusal of Maher’s Wikipedia page suggests his partners have tended to remain in their early 30s even as Maher himself has gotten older.

In 2023, the wildly popular Bachelor franchise brought on its first “golden bachelor,” widower and retired restaurateur Gerry Turner, who was 72 at the time. The women competing to win his love were all between 60 and 75 years old, with many viewers praising the substance the older contestants brought to a notoriously superficial show.

But Maher and his hosts were more interested in discussing age gaps.

After pointing out that former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, 72, and his 24-year-old girlfriend seem happy, they turned to the topic of women who date much younger men.

Pop superstars Cher and Madonna, who are 78 and 66, respectively, are both dating men about 40 years their junior. That fact prompted Carvey to ask the others if they thought women who gain power seem to date younger partners, just like men who get power.

“Yeah, absolutely. That happens,” Maher said, citing actor Kate Beckinsale dating comedian Pete Davidson when she was 46 and he was 26. “When they do it, it’s empowering. When men do it, we’re perverts.”

Carvey then tried to get analytical, musing on whether women are really attracted to wealth and fame or whether they’re attracted to the underlying personality types that tend to achieve success.

Maher, however, wasn’t done with his Golden Bachelor idea.

“But don’t you think that would be a great show?” he asked. “But with women that David and I are attracted to. And that doesn’t make us bad people.”