Couple with 33-year age gap says strangers, family struggle with relationship: 'We definitely get looks'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Isabella, 20, says she's "living in the moment" and "making the most" of her time with Joseph, 53. (SWNS)
A 20-year-old woman who is engaged to a man more than three decades older has revealed that strangers just assume he is her father.
Isabella Sainz has two children with Joseph Conner, 53, but she's 15 years younger than his eldest child.
The full-time mother fell in love with the retired cop — who is now a high school lacrosse coach — when the pair worked together. They had only been dating for a month when Isabella became pregnant, and they now share daughters Autumn, 15 months, and Wynter, six weeks.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Joseph is now a father of six, following four offspring from a previous relationship: Joseph, 34; Jason, 24; Justin, 21; and daughter Jacqueline, 23.
The couple, from Miami, are now planning their wedding.
“We definitely get looks when we are out in public together. Strangers will say to Joseph: ‘Are you her dad?’ Sometimes we correct them and they go quiet, other times we’ll joke it off and pretend that I am his daughter," Isabella says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Everybody has their own opinions, but life is extremely short and you should do what makes you happy.”
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Isabella was just 18 when she met Joseph in October 2016 while working with his lacrosse club, where she was trying to gain experience before applying to medical school.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was attracted to him but I actually did not like him at all. He came off as arrogant. But once I got to know him and actually spoke to him about politics, family and his children, I realized he was a good guy," Isabella said, adding, “He wasn’t arrogant, it was just the way he carried himself in front of the team.”
The couple had only been dating for a month when Isabella became pregnant, and they now share daughters Autumn, 15 months, and Wynter, 6 weeks. (SWNS)
The pair began dating in December 2016. And just one month later Isabella found out she was pregnant.
“That escalated things very quickly and we had to make a decision. Obviously, I was terrified when I told him, but he was extremely supportive.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We decided that we were definitely going to be together and he bought a place in Miami for us to live.”
Just five months after giving birth to Autumn in August 2017, Isabella became pregnant again. And in April 2018, Joseph popped the question, presenting Isabella with a square-cut diamond ring during a stroll on the beach.
The pair are now happily planning their dream wedding for the end of this year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Joseph and Isabella are planning to get married later this year. (SWNS)
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But Isabella admitted that her friends and family were not immediately supportive of her relationship with a man 33 years her senior.
“[They] worried about the age difference, but once they got to know us as a couple it was fine.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I have lost friends," she admitted. “A lot of people went to college while I became a mom, our lives went in different directions.”
Joseph insisted that, for him, age was not a “big factor” in his attraction to Isabella.
“It really had more to do with her personality than her age… I liked the way she handled things and her level of maturity. She was just so much fun to be around.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He added that most of his friends were blown away when they met Isabella.
“After they saw her, they said: ‘Oh I get it,'" he said. “They think that I am with her because she is so good-looking, but that’s not the reason I’m involved with her.”
“Middle-aged women seem to be very uptight about it. They stare at their husbands trying to see if they are on-board with it," Joseph said of his relationship with Isabella. (SWNS)
Joseph also accused women his own age of having the biggest problem with his age gap relationship.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Middle-aged women seem to be very uptight about it. They stare at their husbands trying to see if they are on-board with it."
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Joseph said his daughter, too, has struggled with his relationship.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I really feel like my boys don’t have an issue but I think my daughter did. I get a feeling she wasn’t very happy about the whole situation although she has never said anything negative to me about it.”
Isabella confessed that although she does occasionally worry that Joseph is three decades older than her, they are making the most of their time together.
“I do worry about medical problems and Joseph leaving me too soon. But we don’t know what’s going to happen in life.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’m living in the moment," she added. “We have two girls together and he’s making the most of his time with them now.”
Isabella also documents her age gap relationship and young motherhood on her YouTube channel.