A woman has married her former high school teacher – a man 40 years her senior.
Minea Pagni, 23, met Massimo, 63, when she was one of his students several years back, when she admits she had a crush on him.
They reconnected in recent years when Minea was back in her hometown and saw him out shopping, and they decided to exchange numbers.
From there, romance bloomed and the couple became inseparable.
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While their relationship has been criticised due to the age gap and the way in which they met, they insist theirs is a true love story.
The couple, who live in Italy and recently tied the knot, don’t care what people have to say about their relationship – and say their loved ones have been understanding.
“The people who genuinely care about us, close friends, those who truly know us, needed very little time to understand,” Minea, now a university student, told What’s The Jam.
“Literally, after seeing us together for just a couple of hours, many said the same thing: that we were made for each other.
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“This is because there is something between us that transcends age – a deep affinity, a similar way of looking at the world, of speaking, of listening, of inhabiting each other’s presence.
“Negative judgments often come from a distance, from those who claim the right to judge without knowing.
“But true love, the sense of fullness and joy it brings, is immediately recognised by those who care about you sincerely.
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“Family and friends quickly understood what truly matters: the quality of our bond, mutual respect, and the joy we share in being together.”
For Minea and Massimo, now a professor, the age difference is not something they “feel”.
She said: “We are aligned in the choices we make, in how we spend our time, and in the priorities we give to the fundamental stages of our lives.
“I have had relationships with people much closer to me in age, yet deeply distant on a human level.
“With Massimo, and only with him, despite a 40-year difference, I have found a rare closeness, a profound harmony, and an emotional language that truly resonates with mine.
“Age is simply a fact.”
She also says that every day she has women reaching out for advice.
She said: “I receive messages from women who entrust me with intimate fragments of their lives – women who do not know how to name their relationship in front of their parents, women who confess that they feel uncomfortable walking beside the man they love, fearing the looks of others.
“We often tell ourselves that we live in an open, emancipated, modern society.
“Yet when love deviates from predefined paths, that supposed openness reveals its limits.
“A relationship marked by an age difference, whether it is a woman with an older man or the opposite, is still perceived as something out of place.
“But if there is a legitimate source of shame, it does not lie in love itself.
“It lies in the fact that a woman is led to doubt herself because the person she loves does not conform to social stereotypes.
“The right partner does not complete a woman’s image, he completes her inner space.”
Minea takes pride in sharing their lives on Instagram, where she has over 33,700 followers.
She added: “What I feel is essential to clarify, above all else, is the deeper reason why I chose to share my story on social media.
“It was not a decision driven by the desire for visibility, nor by the intention to create sensationalism or fuel gossip.
“On the contrary, it stems from the opposite intent: to contribute, even in a small way, to a future in which stories like mine no longer provoke scandal.”
The duo first reconnected after Minea graduated high school “by chance”, seeing each other in a book shop.
Minea said: “I was about to catch a train to go home, and he was there to give a series of conferences.
“We talked about books, about life, and we laughed.
“Before leaving, I gave him my phone number.
“For me, seeing him again meant reconnecting with someone who had played an important role in my personal formation.
“During my school years, he had been a teacher capable of transmitting a genuine passion for study, critical thinking, and knowledge.
“At an age when one is still deeply impressionable, he was one of those adults who make you understand that studying is not an obligation, but a choice that can truly make you free.”
At the time the two were long distance, but Minea says that only led their love to grow stronger.
She said: “That time, that distance, was important to me: it confirmed that what grew between us was not an impulse, but a conscious choice made in the present, between two aware adults.
“What had always moved me was never his age, but the person he is.
“In my life, age and economic status have never been central factors in choosing a partner.
“I have dated men my own age with whom I immediately felt distant, unaligned, and misunderstood.
“With Massimo, despite the age difference, I feel listened to, supported, truly seen, and accepted for who I am.”
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