When people meet them for the first time, they think the baby is his grandchild. A 38-year-old woman who wrongly thought she was infertile has had a baby with a 77-year-old man after falling in love on a Australian backpacking trip.
Kat King is frequently mistaken for her husband Kevin’s granddaughter but she says she has never felt more content. The couple met in January 2007 at a campsite in Tasmania and despite the 39-year age gap, the pair immediately hit it off.
Kevin proposed to Kat a few months later and in 2010 they welcomed their “miracle” son Pierre. Kat began her backpacking adventure in 2006, leaving her native Germany for Australia.
Speaking of how she met Kevin, she said: “We were just friends, and I would stay in his nice caravan in return for cooking for him. While we shared his double bed, there was no funny
“But, one day in summer 2007, in a supermarket, he bumped into me by accident and I reacted furiously and stormed off – threatening to leave him and travel alone.
”After a row, we kissed and made-up and, shortly afterwards, became a couple.” Just a few months later, in August 2007, Kevin proposed with a silver ring – and, despite his age, she agreed to marry him.
That autumn she returned to Germany to tell her mum, Carla Hoffman, who was in her 50s but has since sadly died, was in a relationship with Kevin and due to be wed.
Carla was shocked – particularly as he was divorced and his oldest girl, Debbie, was 14 years Kat’s senior.
“She understood when I told her how much I loved him,” explained Kat. “Other people weren’t so positive, though. They thought he was too old for me, especially as he had been mistaken for my grandad.”
But Kat did not know just how big their age gap was until the day before her November 2007 wedding.
Kevin had lied and knocked ten years off his age.“He told me the truth – that he was 39 years older than me. He’d shaved 10 years off,” she laughed. “But by that point, it was too late. There was no point in getting annoyed as I was in love.”
Only the happy couple, Kat’s sister Debbie and her mum Carla knew the pair were tying the knot in a sweet garden ceremony.
Other people simply believed they were having a party.
“They were so surprised when they discovered the truth,” giggled Kat. “But it was a lovely day. I wore a white dress and it was perfect.”
And in September 2010 baby Pierre, now seven, was born.
Kat discovered she was pregnant at the doctor’s, where she had booked an appointment to investigate her unexplained infertility. “We were sort of trying for a baby,” she explained. “We thought, ‘If it happens, it happens.
“But when it didn’t, I realised I really wanted it to.
“That’s why – after more than a year of trying – I was at the doctor’s.
“We were both absolutely thrilled when I found out I was pregnant – even more so when Pierre was born on September 10, weighing a healthy 7lb 4oz.” Kevin’s health has since declined and he recently underwent open heart surgery.
“When the surgeon heard about me they joked with him, saying, ‘We made it extra strong, so you can live for a long while yet,’” said Kat.
“I know my choices might seem strange to some people. But I’m proof that age is just a number and you’re never too old for love.”
🙂