Lionel Richie reveals 40-year age gap romance with Lisa Parigi

The 40-year age gap is no issue for the music legend. Photo / Getty Images

Lionel Richie and longtime girlfriend Lisa Parigi have some fans stunned by their apparent 40-year age gap.

The singer and his lifestyle blogger girlfriend have reportedly been dating since 2014, but strangely, in the past few days the pair's mammoth age gap has come to the internet's attention.

Richie is 71, while Ace Showbiz reports that Parigi was born in 1989 – that's 40 years after her Grammy-winning boyfriend.

It also makes Parigi younger than Richie's adopted daughter Nicole, who is 39, and just a few years older than daughter Sofia, 22, and son Miles, 26.

News of the couple's 40-year age gap ignited much discussion online in recent days:

Lionel Richie with his new Bae, he's 71 and she's 30, love wins ❤️ pic.twitter.com/6csW7dhlFa

— K U L A N I (@kulanicool) February 22, 2021

Somebody wanna tell why everybody & their momma got an issue with Lionel Richie dating a 30 yr old (supposedly)? They are both legal consenting adults correct? He didn’t force her or coerce her or manipulate her, correct? So what’s the problem? pic.twitter.com/H6gu8ck1m3

— Char 💋 (@char_babiee) February 23, 2021

Lionel Richie inspires me to never give up on love, that I can find true love from granddaughter's friend pic.twitter.com/jSfz8zYK1u

— Thαßo©️ (@ThaboDieJaneiro) February 22, 2021

Parigi appeared to address the sudden fuss over her relationship in a post to her Instagram stories today. "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people," the post read.

Richie has previously been married twice – to Brenda Harvey from 1975 to 1993, and to Diane Alexander from 1995 to 2004.

He and Parigi are certainly not the first celebrity couple with a very large age difference. Others to make headlines in recent years include Katharine McPhee and musician husband David Foster, 34 years her senior, and actor Dolph Lundgren, 63, who got engaged to 24-year-old personal trainer Emma Krokdal last year.

Perhaps the biggest age gap among celeb couples: American Pie singer Don McLean, who made headlines in 2019 for living the high life with a Playboy model girlfriend 48 years his junior.