Jul 13, 2026
For years, Hollywood sold a very specific version of success: the powerful man with the glamorous, much younger wife on his arm. Think Naomi Lapaglia in “The Wolf of Wall Street” — a character who became one of pop culture’s defining “trophy wives.”
Life often mirrored the movies. A 2013 study by Dutch social scientists examining the Forbes 400 found that America’s richest men were, on average, seven years older than their wives, compared with an age gap of just two to three years across the general population. Among those who remarried, the gap was even wider, with second wives averaging more than 22 years younger than their husbands.
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But that script may be getting a rewrite. New research suggests today’s wealthy couples are increasingly looking less like traditional trophy-wife pairings and more like partnerships between peers.
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A narrowing gap
The gap between wealthy men and much younger wives has narrowed dramatically over the past four decades.
Using U.S. Census data compiled by the University of Minnesota Population Center The Economist filtered it to group heterosexual couples by the husband’s income. In 1980, men in the top 1% of earners were noticeably more likely to be married to someone at least 10 years younger than they were. About one in 12 of the highest-earning husbands had a wife at least a decade younger, compared with one in 17 couples overall.
By 2024, that difference had all but disappeared, per the research. The wealthiest husbands were no more likely than the average American man to have a significantly younger wife.
The shift has coincided with broader changes in American marriages. According to Pew Research Center, 29% of married couples now earn roughly the same amount of money, while just over half have a husband who is the primary or sole breadwinner.
The changing numbers don’t surprise Amber Lee, co-founder of Select Date Society, who works with affluent singles.
“The old model showed up like an acquisition,” Lee told Moneywise. “He had built an incredible life, and she was the status symbol that offered proof of that. It has been replaced by more of a strategic alliance or merger of sorts. Now we’re seeing true power couples.”
Lee said the shift has coincided with more women building successful careers of their own. She said her wealthy clients are no longer looking for a trophy on their arm, but for partners who are confident in high-level social and professional settings and who bring depth and intellect to the relationship.
What about trophy husbands?
The trend doesn’t appear to work in reverse. Relationship dynamics have not simply flipped traditional gender roles. High-earning women generally aren’t replacing older wealthy husbands with younger partners.
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Around one in five high-earning women had a husband who was at least 10 years younger — roughly the same share as women with lower incomes.In fact, until recently, women in the top 10% of earners were slightly more likely to marry men who were older than they were.
Eli Kraiem, a clinical psychologist, couples therapist and adjunct professor at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, says the shrinking age gap among wealthy couples reflects broader changes in how people meet and what they value in a partner.
“The emerging ideal in romantic relationships is less about the ‘trophy wife’ and more about a shift in the sense of a “power partnership,” he told Moneywise. “Many wealthy couples are now striving to have a more collaborative and equal relationship in this sense.”
He said many affluent couples now meet through work, graduate school and professional networks, where people are more likely to share similar ages, educational backgrounds and career ambitions.
For decades, Hollywood used the billionaire with a glamorous younger wife as shorthand for wealth and power. The latest research suggests that image may be becoming more movie trope than reality.
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based staff reporter at Moneywise covering personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto and New York University, and her work has appeared on platforms including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money and Apple News.
