“I fell in love with a Dane 16 years younger; I saw him in a magazine and it was love at first sight”: she tells her love story in her first novel, at 70

Lourdes proudly says that her sixth decade has been thrilling, fun, and challenging: she succeeded in digital journalism thanks to her Twitter activity, took on professional challenges such as directing a magazine, and now, having turned 70, continues with her vacation rental business in Malvarrosa and is finalizing the details of her first autofiction novel. In it, this Valencian woman, who prefers not to reveal her last name, addresses a “very surprising” sentimental experience: a romance with a Dane 16 years younger than her. But first, let’s go back a little in time.

How did Lourdes start this decade? “My sixtieth birthday caught me with my usual vacation rental job and writing two weekly posts for the ATRESMEDIA website, where I was signed for five years by Paco Sierra, the content director through X (formerly Twitter). I had a personal blog with almost three million page views, he read my posts and sent me a private message offering collaboration,” she says. They met for lunch in Madrid, he made her an offer, and Lourdes started typing. She also directed a digital magazine for iPad, an offer that also came through this social network,” she explains.

She was not impressed by entering her sixties. “I was so busy that only during the lockdown, at 64, did I realize I was in the adolescence of old age,” she recounts. In fact, the pandemic caught her at the peak of her professional career, all thanks to her active online profile. “I have been on the internet for fifteen years but always betting on anonymity,” she says.

“I really enjoyed the projects that came after 60: I had to write about famous women in maturity for this now-defunct ATRESMEDIA vertical called Celebrities, aimed at an older target. I loved researching and my articles had thousands of visits. The girls in the newsroom congratulated me!” she recalls. She also led Malas for ten months, an online iPad magazine for which she had to recruit and coordinate bloggers from different sections. “There were Lola Gracia, then editor of the magazine Mía, and Marién Ladrón de Guevara from the gastronomic blog Te veo en Madrid. Amazing women.” At that time, she admits “sleeping very little” but feeling very fulfilled. “I wish I had dedicated myself to journalism earlier,” she laments. It is her lingering regret.

Although she has delegated part of the work to her daughter for two or three years, she is not retired: she still dedicates part of her time to managing vacation rentals on the Valencian coast. “I also run a small business with her buying, renovating, and selling properties.” She says that since she has always worked for herself, she has not been affected by ageism in the workplace.

“I don’t see myself as a 70-year-old woman,” she warns. In fact, she feels like she is in her fifties: she has good friends twenty years younger than her, and although she admits she has noticed becoming more invisible to men over time, it does not affect her at all. “Although there is some interested gentleman out there, I find it very tedious. As Miley Cyrus says, I can buy my own flowers. I live happily enjoying my freedom,” she confesses. She has an active but calm routine: she dedicates two days a week to Pilates, enjoys the pleasure of writing, and occasionally goes out to lunch or dinner with friends or sporadically attends cultural events.

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Her attitude towards life remains experimental and youthful. “I wear a size 38 that allows me to dress as I want, I am very active on social media and listen to Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone, Livingston and that kind of stuff,” she notes. “Age has brought me some joys, few but important: seeing my three children become healthy, hardworking, and responsible adults but, above all, good people. And, of course, seeing my three teenage grandchildren grow up happily,” Lourdes celebrates.

A voracious reader, she also recently decided to dare with a novel: she is finishing correcting and editing an autofiction book about her relationship with a Dane 16 years younger than her: they met in their thirties in Madrid, fell in love, and lost touch. For her, the age difference has never been a problem. “In Madrid, I also had a boyfriend in his twenties when I was in my forties, and we had a business together. But that’s another story.”

Back to the Dane, Cupid and chance agreed. “The beginning is incredible: I had just divorced, saw an ad for White Label in a magazine on a plane while flying to the capital and thought, what a handsome man! I went out to dinner with my cousin and in a nightclub, they introduced me to that same guy from the magazine, and the spark flew,” she recounts. Like in a good romantic movie, they spent many years not knowing about each other until a decade ago, he found her again on Facebook and the spark reignited. She keeps the details of the romance for the readers of her upcoming book.

To be honest, Lourdes admits she doesn’t find much fun in aging. “But since it’s not optional, the only alternative is to carry your age as best you can,” she laughs. “Without isolating yourself, filling your life, trying and experimenting with new things without self-limiting.” She has feared nothing in love or work.

“For me, the best thing about getting older is that you haven’t died. Then, becoming more selective with everything: friendships, readings, outings… being able to choose and do what you really want. Being able to see people coming; now you are harder to fool. Not caring about what others say, something that gives you a lot of freedom and makes your life more comfortable,” is her advice for others her age.

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