I bagged a toyboy half my age & he’s obsessed with my sexy figure – everyone stares at us but they’re just envious
AS SHE leaves the dancefloor, wrapped around her boyfriend, Dawn Gadsby knows all eyes are on her.
Everywhere she goes, she and her boyfriend, Tom, seem to attract so much attention.
For at 53, Dawn has bagged a lover who is an amazing 25 years younger – and she’s living the life to match.
Dawn says: “Some people are probably envious, others disapprove, but everyone who knows us thinks it’s great.
“We get on so well together and I actually feel much better and younger than I did in my 30’s. I’m really living life, and it’s all thanks to Tom.”
The couple got together in August 2023 after meeting as friends a couple of years earlier. At 28, he is 25 years her junior.
Dawn says: “I met Tom through friends, but nothing happened and I didn’t imagine it would, because of the age-gap, although I found out afterwards he had been telling his friends how much he fancied me and wanted to be with me.
“I was in a bad relationship and after that ended, I found I could concentrate on myself.
“Tom got in touch that August and we arranged to meet for coffee.
“I was feeling really good about myself, and that coffee date something changed between us, there was definite chemistry.
“It was pretty instant, and within a couple of weeks we were living together.
“I have never gone for younger men before and Tom has never gone for older women, it’s simply because of who we are that we are attracted to each other.”
Dawn’s happiness comes after a lifetime of struggle.
For 25 years, she battled alcoholism and at her worst she was downing a litre and a half of vodka every day. She came close to death before taking control and getting sober aged 42.
Dawn, from Southport, suffered a serious sexual assault aged 12, which triggered her reliance on alcohol.
She says: “I didn’t tell anyone about the attack, instead I turned my pain inwards and, in my teens, I used alcohol to numb those feelings. I drank to oblivion. The attack left me with very low self-worth.”
Dawn graduated from university with a pharmacology degree, but, as she began earning more money, she also drank more.
She says: “I got a good job in marketing, I had my own flat, and I drank a bottle of wine each night. I told myself it was like ‘Sex in the City’, I was in denial.”
As her drinking became worse, Dawn became unable to work and by aged 38, she was drinking a litre and a half of vodka every day.
She says: “I didn’t even bother mixing it. I’d just take a mouthful of vodka and then a separate mouthful of coke. My whole life revolved around drinking, but I was never actually drunk.”
In 2014, Dawn suffered a 36 hour stretch of convulsions and vomiting, and it became her turning point.
She booked onto a 10-day detox followed by months of talking therapy groups. Afterwards, she qualified as a therapist herself.
She says: “My thought process towards alcohol changed completely. I would picture what the vodka was doing to me – how it was damaging my organs and killing me essentially – and I never drank again.”
But Dawn instead began over-eating, replacing drink with food and bingeing on four family bags of Haribo each night.
She says: “I had never been interested in food when I was an alcoholic, I couldn’t taste anything, so it was like a new chapter. I craved sugar – I was replacing one addiction with another, but I didn’t see that.”
But by 2021, Dawn weighed 15st, and she decided a change was needed.
I thought I’d never find love at my age and this has totally taken me by surprise.
Dawn Gadsby
She says: “I didn’t diet, and I didn’t weigh myself. Instead, I just became healthy. When I wanted KFC, I envisaged how fatty and greasy it was, sliding down my throat and sitting in my stomach. And I found I didn’t want it at all.”
Dawn lost five stone and is now a healthy 10st weight. Falling in love with Tom, she says, is the fairytale ending she had always dreamed of.
Dawn says: “Tom has had a massive impact on my life.
“He is the most emotionally mature and thoughtful person I have ever met, he is my best friend as well as my life partner.
“And the best thing is I know he feels the same about me. We totally ‘get’ each other.
A-list age gap relationships that have stood the test of time
- Kris Jenner & Corey Gamble – 25 years
The Kardashian matriarch, 69, met her younger man, 44, at a mutual friend’s 40th birthday party in Ibiza. They’ve been together since August 2014. - Sam & Aaron Taylor-Johnson – 23 years
The director, 57, and actor, 34, reportedly met at a film audition in 2009, and were married by 2012. The pair share two daughters and Sam has two children from a previous marriage. - Rosie-Huntington-Whiteley & Jason Statham – 20 years
The model, 37, started dating actor Jason, 57, in 2010. They were wed in 2016 and have since welcomed a son and a daughter together. - Catherine Zeta-Jones & Michael Douglas – 25 years
Catherine, 55, was introduced to Michael, 80, a film festival in 1996 and engaged three years later. Shortly after their engagement, the couple welcomed a son and married in 2000.
“I’ve never had a younger partner before, but the age difference really doesn’t matter.
“I lost so many years when I was drinking, so in a way, I feel so much younger than I really am, like my adult life is just starting.
“I have never had a relationship like it and Tom has made it even easier not to drink because he’s made me so happy.
“I also thought I’d never find love at my age and this has totally taken me by surprise.”
Dawn says that being with Tom has done nothing but boot her body confidence.
“He loves my figure and thinks I’m sexy and attractive and openly adores me,” she says.
“He has given me so much body confidence in myself and encourages me to wear what I want to.
“So I suppose this is an extra layer on my mindset around my weight.”
And despite being old enough to be his mum, Dawn says that Tom’s family has been nothing but welcoming to her.
“Tom’s mum had been amazing,” she says.
“She and her partner have both welcomed me into their extended family with open arms. This has been incredible because I lost my own mum at Christmas.
“Our families and friends have been supportive and all have the approach that age is an attitude not a number and life’s too short to worry about what others think.
“We go out to rock clubs or gigs no one bats an eyelid, and we are not shy in hugging or giving each other a kiss when we are out.
He has given me so much body confidence in myself and encourages me to wear what I want.
Dawn Gadsby
“He’s been a big support to me, and I’ve encouraged him to start doing standup comedy, where there are a few jokes about his girlfriend’s age.”
The couple live together in Southport where Dawn works full-time as a psychotherapist supporting clients through trauma, addiction and recovery.
She says: “Giving up alcohol and changing my diet were based on the four points of acceptance, understanding, learning and change. I’m sharing my story because I want others to know that they have worth, and they matter.
“I was made to feel completely worthless after I was assaulted, and now, after many years and two battles, I have turned it around.
“I now feel utterly fantastic. At 53 I feel better than I did in my 30’s and I also look better. I feel so much younger than I really am, like my adult life is just starting.”