FRANCESCA ANNIS AND RALPH FIENNES Age difference: 18 years
Ralph Fiennes met Francesca Annis, nearly two decades his senior, when she played his mother in a London stage production of Hamlet. Sparks flew, and in 1996 the two left their relationships – he was wed to ER's Alex Kingston and she was photographer Patrick Wiseman's partner of 22 years – to begin a romance. "I think if two people have a strong connection and a strong bond, that's what's important," Ralph says of the age gap. "Certainly in my life, age difference has not been a problem."