On ‘Girls Gotta Eat’: Leonardo DiCaprio Says He Feels Emotionally 32. Sure, Jan!

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors. Still, his dating life has long drawn just as much attention as his movies. The Oscar winner is now 50, yet he continues to make headlines for exclusively dating women significantly younger than himself. While this pattern has often been brushed off with jokes or memes, the hosts of Girls Gotta Eat—Rayna Greenberg and Ashley Hesseltine—don’t think it’s sexy.

Recently, the duo delved into DiCaprio’s Esquire interview with Paul Thomas Anderson, in which he discussed feeling emotionally younger than his years, and they weren’t impressed. The conversation highlighted the growing cultural commentary around age gaps, power dynamics, and what we normalize in celebrity culture.

If you grew up watching DiCaprio evolve from teen heartthrob in Romeo + Juliet to international superstar in The Wolf of Wall Street, this topic strikes a nerve. Many women remember swooning over him as teenagers—only to watch him, decades later, pursue women of that same age while his peers are raising families.

Leonardo DiCaprio insists he feels younger

DiCaprio has pushed back on criticism by claiming he relates more to people younger than him. As Hesseltine points out, “In an interview recently, he insisted that he is emotionally 32. After getting all this backlash about dating younger women, he’s basically like, I can’t date women my own age, because I am actually these young girls’ age.”

The problem, of course, is that his dating history doesn’t reflect that logic. As Greenberg notes, “He says he feels 32, but he’s not dating 32-year-olds, which is even crazier.”

That inconsistency is precisely why the Girls Gotta Eat hosts aren’t buying his explanation. Feeling younger than your biological age might be relatable—but using it as an excuse to exclusively pursue women decades younger? That’s a different story.

Why younger women see it differently

The hosts also reflected on how this behavior stems from the perspective of younger women themselves. Hesseltine shares, “If I were that 25-year-old and this 55-year-old man came up to me, I would be like, ‘Ew, what is that? Are you trying to recruit me for a job? Like, why are you talking to me?”

For many women in their early 20s, even dating someone in their early 30s can feel like a stretch. “When I was 22, I thought 30 was crazy old,” she adds. That reality underscores why the optics of a 50-year-old pursuing someone fresh out of college can be unsettling, regardless of their fame or wealth.

Greenberg agrees, pointing out how strange it feels when men with significant age gaps make advances. “When I was 22, my boyfriend was 28, and I thought he was so grown. I was like, he is so old and grown up.”

Their candid take echoes what many women quietly acknowledge: Age is more than just a number when it comes to life experience, emotional development, and power.

The eternal bachelor archetype

The hosts also compare DiCaprio to men they’ve encountered who never outgrow the bachelor lifestyle. Hesseltine describes a conversation with friends about the men who are just eternal playboys. “Peter Pan, like 55, and still single and dating and going after girls in their 20s,” she recalls.

That “Peter Pan” label—referring to men who refuse to grow up—captures why DiCaprio’s dating pattern rubs so many the wrong way. At 50, he has lived an extraordinary life and achieved career milestones most can only dream of. Yet instead of embracing partners closer to his stage in life, he appears stuck in an endless loop of 20-something girlfriends.

A cultural conversation bigger than DiCaprio

To be fair, DiCaprio isn’t the first older male celebrity to date younger women, and he won’t be the last. Hollywood has a long history of rewarding men for staying perpetually single and charming, while often criticizing women as they age. Still, the conversation sparked by Greenberg and Hesseltine matters because it highlights the imbalance in real-time.

As Hesseltine sums it up, “Just be honest that you like women in their 20s. You don’t have to be like, I’m 32 internally.”

Leonardo DiCaprio is a phenomenal actor, but his insistence that he feels 32 doesn’t make his preference for much younger women any less awkward. The Girls Gotta Eat hosts aren’t shaming all age-gap relationships. They are highlighting why this specific pattern feels less like romance and more like avoidance.

Confidence and maturity are sexy, but clinging to youth isn’t. And as the hosts make clear, DiCaprio’s fascination with women half his age may be headline-worthy—but it isn’t aspirational.

Read Next

• ‘Sports Bitches’: Why Is Everyone Suddenly So Mad About Male Cheerleaders?
• Let’s Do a Deep Dive into Taylor Swift’s Astrological Chart with ‘The Balanced Blonde’
• On ‘Good Guys,’ the American Eagle ‘Great Jeans’ Debate Continues