Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most recognizable celebrities and there’s no question that he’s one of the greatest actors of our generation.

But while the world is focused on his incredible talents and humanitarian efforts, there’s a huge elephant in the room that needs to be discussed: his dating life.

Leo definitely has a type: tall, blonde, thin, and young. There’s nothing wrong with that. Most people have a type, after all.

But over the weekend, Reddit user TrustLittleBrother created a chart (see below) of Leo’s dating habits and it has been making waves on the internet. It points out something that has gone over everyone’s heads: Leo has never dated a woman over the age of 25.

leonardo dicaprio dating girlfriend
Credit: Reddit User TrustLittleBrother

The chart shows eight of Leo’s girlfriends, including A-listers like Gisele Bündchen and Blake Lively, who were 18 and 21 respectively when they first started dating the actor. Only three of the women on the list were 25 years old, but by the following year, he was on to the next girl.

Back in February, Gisele described how Leo’s toxic behavior affected her. She told PORTER,

“No longer numbing myself with smoking, drinking, and too much work, I was becoming more and more aware of things that I’d chosen not to look at. Was I alone in wanting to do some serious soul-searching while he stayed the same? In the end, unfortunately, the answer was yes.”

Leo, who is now 44, has moved on to another young, impressionable girl: 21-year-old Argentinian model (and Al Pacino’s step-daughter) Camila Morrone.

When looking at it without context, it’s just another middle-aged celebrity dating a younger woman, which is sadly pretty common in Hollywood. But what makes the whole relationship odd is the fact that he’s known Camila since she was 11 years old. To put that in perspective, when Leo was in his 30s, his future girlfriend was just starting middle school. Totally gross, but again, he’s not the first celebrity to do something like this.

leonardo dicaprio girlfriend age
Leo’s girlfriends from left: Erin Heatherton, Toni Garrn, Kelly Rohrbach, Nina Adgal, Camila Morrone

Woody Allen is notorious for having an inappropriate relationship with his former partner, Mia Farrow’s adoptive daughter Soon- Yi Previn. Allen began dating Farrow in 1980, making Soon-Yi 10 years old when she first met Woody.

In addition to Woody, countless other men have dated women who were significantly younger than them — think Drake (31) and Bella Harris (18), John Mayer (then 32) and Taylor Swift (then 21),  Scott Disick (then 34) and Sofia Richie (then 19), and Wilmer Valderrama (then 36) and Demi Lovato (then 23).

There’s still the question as to why some older men choose to date women much younger than them. It sure as hell isn’t shared life experiences and it’s much more complex than just sex. It’s about control.

Temple University Professor Laurence Steinberg explained,

“Significant changes in brain anatomy and activity are still taking place during young adulthood, especially in prefrontal regions that are important for planning ahead, anticipating the future consequences of one’s decisions, controlling impulses, and comparing risk and reward.”

In other words, our cognitive skills are not fully developed and thus it’s possible for a man to mold you into the person he wants you to be. Of course, as you get older, it’s inevitable that your brain will continue to mature.

leo dicaprio girlfriend
Leonardo and Gisele circa early 2000s

We’ve all heard that girls mature faster than boys and it’s true. In a British study taken in 2013, scientists found that women’s brains reach emotional maturity at 32, while men mature at 43. They also found that the prefrontal cortex fully develops in women at 21 and men at 25.

Is Leo guilty of this? Who knows. But it is interesting that he seems to date women right at the moment when they begin to mature. And yet once the development is complete and they realize their long-term goals, he dumps them. In short, to him, women are disposable.

Take Gisele for example. She grew up, took ownership of herself, and realized that she didn’t like who she was when she was with Leo. So she did what was best for her and left.

Yes, Camila is a consenting adult. But it can’t be denied that given the history between the two, their relationship needs to be questioned. Given Leo’s dating pattern, they probably won’t last long.

What’s perhaps most interesting about Leo’s situation, in particular, is that he’s considered “woke” when it comes to the danger that our planet is in and yet he can’t seem to check his own misogyny and ageism.

At least now we can all stop asking why he and Kate Winslet never got together. She was just too damn old.


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