All Black Sonny Bill Williams has been linked to a new girl - the teenage daughter of former rugby and league international Matthew Ridge.
Sources said yesterday that Williams, 26, was dating 18-year-old Jaime Ridge, an Auckland student, model and social-page regular.
They said the pair had been seeing eachother for about two weeks.
One source said Sally Ridge met Williams after taking up boxing lessons recently and introduced him to her daughter, who is about to start her second year at university studying law and commerce with a double major in international business and marketing.
The couple have been spending a significant amount of time together since, with Williams spending"every other night" at the house where Ms Ridge lives with her mother, according to the source.
Another source close to the couple said the news of the new relationship came as "a shock".
"It's not very good. She's 18 and he's nearly 27. She's dating [the equivalent of] her father in his prime and I'm not sure she knows that. It's too much too soon. I don't care how mature you are at 18 - 18 is 18."
It is understood Ms Ridge has been spending time in Hamilton with Williams and is planning to spend the weekend there, along with her mother.
In December, it was reported the she was in a relationship with Dwayne Rowsell, a member of the 2011 Black Sticks Development Squad. She referred to him as "Mr Good Looking" in an online message on January 7. "She dumped Dwayne and hooked up with Sonny Bill Williams," one source said. "Jaime has gone to Hamilton with him and his manager this week."
When she was seeing Rowsell she often mentioned him and posted photographs of him on her Twitter account.
She and Williams follow each other on the social networking site, but have yet to make any public display of affection online.
Williams has had a more high-profile love life than his younger new girlfriend. In September he was linked to a fellow athlete, 21-year-old Cantabrian Aleisha Berryman.
The pair were snapped by a woman's magazine grabbing a Chinese takeaway meal together, dressed down in trackpants and casual jumpers.
Williams is scheduled to fight Clarence Tillman III for the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association heavyweight title in Hamilton on February 8.
He began training with his new Super Rugby team, the Chiefs, in Hamilton this month.
