Comedian Kathy Griffin stunned fans after she apparently struggled with a new relationship on social media – with a man she said was 43 years her junior.
Suddenly Susan And My life is on the D list The 65-year-old star posted a photo on her Instagram today of herself holding hands with an unidentified young man, with the simple caption: “He’s 22 years old. Go for it, Internet.”
As the internet sparked an uproar over the apparent age-gap romance, Griffin later took to Instagram again to issue a statement, saying it was also a “sociological experiment on social media.”
“No, I’m not dating this 22 year old guy,” she wrote in part.
“He helped me with security during my trip to New York. But… what if I helped? The response was amazing.”
Griffin went on to write that the reaction on Instagram was mostly positive, while Threads made a lot more “crap accusations” about the “grooming” and said it was “disgusting.”
“Older men have been dating younger women since the beginning of time… Just ask 54-year-old Luke Wilson, who just welcomed a beautiful baby with his 24-year-old girlfriend,” she noted.
“… or Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, or Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Jay-Z and Beyoncé… one of the longest lasting wonderful relationships in my favorite (albeit discriminatory and sexist) industry.”
Griffin concluded: “Relax… just a little harmless fun.”
Meanwhile, this wasn’t the first time in recent weeks that Griffin has gone hard on a relationship – real or fake – on social media without actually naming the man she’s dating.
Back in mid-May, she published a photo of herself with an unknown man who looked closer to her in age, writing: “We are an official representative of Insta. Deal with it.”
That previous photo has since been deleted, suggesting that Griffin and her boyfriend May may have already split.
In the past, Griffin has openly talked about dating men much younger than her. Last December, she wrote an article in which she revealed that she had fallen in love with the 23-year-old after her 2025 split from ex-husband Randy Byck, who at 47 was almost two decades younger than Griffin himself.
“I accidentally fell in love with a 23-year-old guy,” Griffin admitted in an article she wrote for The Cut.
“Because of his age, he didn’t have the usual sexism, misogyny and prejudice that guys my age have. It was like he saw me. I know that sounds really corny. Oh God, that sounds so lame! But I felt very comfortable with him and I felt really content just hanging out.”
But she said that due to the age difference, their romance was short-lived.
“I knew he was too young when he told me he never wanted to have children and that he could be with me forever. And I thought, ‘You don’t know that.’ You are 23. You have no idea,” she wrote.
“So I had to release this pigeon into the wild.”