Until CB reminded me, I truly did not remember that Ryan Phillippe has had a serious girlfriend for four years. He’s been with Paulina Slagter since 2012, maybe earlier. I do know that Paulina was 20 years old and an undergraduate in college when she started up with Ryan, and now she’s 24 years old, while he is 41 years old. A 17 year age difference… sigh. Anyway, Paulina and Ryan are now engaged. He proposed sometime over the holidays and she’s already showing off her ring, apparently.
Ryan Phillippe and his longtime girlfriend Paulina Slagter are engaged, PEOPLE can confirm. The couple were spotted arriving in Miami on Sunday for lunch at Seaspice where they ate riverside and Slagter was seen showing off her engagement ring, an on-looker tells PEOPLE. His proposal to his 24-year-old law student girlfriend is said to have happened over the Christmas period, and the pair will be ringing in the New Year together in Miami.
Phillippe, 41, has two children Ava, 16, and Deacon, 12, with his ex-wife Reese Witherspoon and another child, Kai, four, from a previous relationship with ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp.
In April, Phillippe told Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show that he was “not opposed” to getting married again and gushed about his girlfriend, saying: “She’s awesome. When people see her they have these judgments because she could be a model but she’s about to graduate Stanford Law.”
Adding: “Also what’s great about it – as you get older certain issues become more important to you. I’m very involved in civil rights issues, and so to be with a woman who could actually make an impact in the legal realm – that’s a beautiful thing.”
The pair have been dating for four years and will be ringing in 2016 at the Five Star New Year’s Eve event on Watson Island headlined by deejay Robin Shulz.
If they’ve been happening for four years with little drama, I don’t have much of a problem with this. The age difference makes me roll my eyes, for sure, but after four years, you know your partner’s nature and there probably aren’t that many surprises. Speaking of, I’m surprised that he hasn’t gotten Paulina pregnant. I’m sure that will be happening soon enough though. And then it will probably be a different story.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Stanford law – wow!
She put it on Twitter she was offered a place in a lot of law schools, including Harvard. I like her, actually. She’s not apologetic about being smart. I think Ryan is getting a bit puffy but still babyfaced.
He still has such a baby face, so it sure doesn’t LOOK like a 17yr age difference.
Yeah, and she looks mature. When I was 24 I still looked 15. (Don’t worry, the aging has all caught up to me now.)
In this pic she looks like Ava’s older sister, which she actually could be, at just 8 years older. She doesn’t look nearly as old without that makeup caked on.
http://cdn01.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/phillippe-slagter/ryan-phillippee-paulina-slagter-food-truck-lunch-with-the-kids-05.jpg
oh LORDY! that PIC!
OMG that picture says a thousand word, so gross!
Stanford Law, not too shabby. Doubt she’s planning on getting knocked up anytime soon. I still side-eye this, but…
He’s copying Clooney, the dummy actor with the younger, smart wife. Maybe it’s going to be a new trend in Hollywood. Obviously, it’s not going to last forever but they might make it a few years. He doesn’t appear to be overly loaded with personality, seems brooding and moody most of the time.
Ryan can apparently see into the future then, since he’s been dating his fiance two years longer than George has even known Amal.
Plus, she is way prettier than Amug with all her nips and tucks. I am sure she is less phony too.
Amal was in the latter part of her thirties, rather than very early twenties, though. It’s a big age difference but not such a major discrepancy in life experience. I mean, sure, they’re both consulting adults, but to me 17 years is a huge difference when one partner was only twenty when they met.
She looks older than twenty four.
Its the tons of MU. She is wearing enough for 3 people.
Issue is when she hits her 30s and may outgrow him. 24 year old mind and experience level very different from 32.
Interesting point. I’ll go one further: a 40-something male’s maturity level is probably equal to an early 20-something female.
There. I said it.
“There. I said it.”
And it was dumb.
If she is really as intellectually impressive as her achievements may suggest i guess he is going to have a hard time keeping up with her at least intellectually as she matures.
What he’s saying about her ability and ambitions is pretty terrific but it would go down easier if they were closer in age, he hadn’t likely been her first serious boyfriend, and we knew he first got with her due to her brains and not her model good looks.
Still, marriage to him may help her afford to work for civil rights. Maybe one day he’ll be the hubby of a Supreme Court Justice. ☺
Does anyone know how they met? It seems odd that a 35+ man with kids and fame, to meet an unknown 20yr old still in college and has no known relation to his life or career/industry. Maybe something like Hollywood Matchmaker? He did mention how she looks like a model, could it be she applied through and agency to date someone rich/famous?
Maybe she was a hostess at a restaurant trying to pay for school. Usually hostesses look like “models”, and celebrities like to eat out a lot….
Okay, after looking at her Linkedin, I have no idea what she sees in Ryan Phillipe!
I think she was a model in her teens around LA so maybe that’s how she met. She used to have a modeling portfolio up.
Not odd at all considering he lives and dresses like a 20 year old guy in the clubs
I don’t get the “could be a model” comment. Why, because she’s thin and tall? It takes more than that. Like… face. I don’t see it.
I think he just meant that some people might assume that his fiance is just a typical young bimbo who wants to marry an older actor for the fame/money and become a hollywood trophy wife, but she’s actually really smart and has her own ambitions.
She’s wearing as much make up as a model on a shoot – maybe that’s it? I see resting bitch face with a lot of make up lollll. And what human rights is Mr. Phillippe involved with? The right to chase young women as an aging middle aged man?
What human rights causes has he been involved with? I know he has been involved with the plight of the people in West Papua to have independence from Idonesian rule
When I looked at the picture I thought – a model or an actress. Her face is fine, pretty hair.
She also has this hard look about her which is pretty typical for models and marketing people.
But maybe for lawyers too, I don’t know that many lawyers. The ones I know have a more compassionate “bedside manner” look about them.
I can see it, I think she is quite beautiful, actually.
She is Stanford Law student and i just saw her linkedn profile and it is mad impressive. What doe sshe have in common with a has-been ?? Myabe the sex is good. I hope it is.
Yeah – I was thinking “girl, don’t settle!” haha
Amen to that, LOL
@CORNYBLUE I also looked at her LinkedIn page (and you’re right, it is super impressive!), but this stuck out to me- maybe this is how they met?
It says that in 2011 she “Assisted with the planning and production of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Visit” while she was an intern at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, British Consulate, Los Angeles.
It happens all the time. Women go to college, are successful in college and then give it all up for a husband & marriage. Nothing wrong with it just hope it was the husband they wanted more than the career.
@isabelle, it is so messed up, such a waste of the potential. And I just don’t get it. At top schools the tuition is 50K a year. They spend 200K-300K on education and then never work.
I think a big issue is that in the US it is very hard for women with families to work, US workplace and society is not family friendly, not for men and not for women. But traditionally it is women who have most of the family related responsibilities .
That forces women either to not have a family at all, or abandon / sacrifice their career ambitions. Europeans have a much better balance in this area and happier women because they are more fulfilled.
In the US apart from obvious issues with workplace policies even schools are very much relying on stay at home moms to volunteer and help teachers. All those activities are during regular work hours. Somehow teachers, doctors etc. all expect that there is a woman staying at home to take care of things.
But there is nothing to say she is giving anything up! She is getting married she can practice law in Los Angeles, there are a lot of lawyers there.
Clearly this is a very impressive woman and a very smart one I doubt she is going into this with her eyes clouded or closed. I imagine she’ll have a great career she sounds very driven.
She is literally just engaged to him. She has not given up anything ??
Exactly what I thought when I saw her LinkedIn. She’s definitely settling for mediocre conversations but maybe the spark is more physical!
She was 20 when they first dated and is now marrying the 41 year old father of 3 with a sketchy history with women and all you have is a mild eye roll? Wheres the outrage that was poured on the lesbian couple in which the younger partner was 40? This poor girl, I hope this first marriage is short lived and does as little emotional damage as possible,.
My 2 cents: my good friend went to “school around Boston” (this is code for saying harvard), then dated a major celeb. She is pretty similar to Paulina, “model looks,” everyone was so impressed because she has brains, beauty, intelligence. In reality – she was happy to play around with someone who was rich and famous and meet fancy rich people (then). Now, her at 33 is way different than her at 24…. I give them about 8 years.
yup, me too. Sounds about right–long enough for her to have a child with him, maybe two (no more). And realize that her ambitions and capacity don’t match his.
Yeah, she’s young enough to be impressed by his celebrity, such as it is. Good luck to her.
Lol. I love the “school around Boston” shtick. It’s “humble” bragging at its best, except it’s not humble at all.
same here! only I live in Mass, so it’s super annoying. I met someone who “went to school in Connecticut” – I asked where, and it was Yale. Just be open! Trust me, I won’t treat you any differently. 😉
Yup, it’s a humble brag. Just like ppl who go to Yale or Oxford or Cambridge won’t tell you that they went there. I think she has got proper hell for it but the tradition persists nonetheless.
I went to Yale for grad school and it took me a few months to say it. I felt awkward because it sounds snobby and there are a lot of immediate preconceptions about your background and who are, that are not necessarily true. I quickly realized just saying “in CT” and then having to say it when pressed was worse but honestly, it was strange at first.
This so much and women won’t admit that we want this sometimes. Its comforting at first to have few responsibilities and someone else taking care of you ….but it gets boring and mundane a few years down the road. Have several friends divorcing now that they’re nearing their 40s. Friends that married when they were young. The divorces are mostly being initiated by my girlfriends. Not only divorcing but leaving the children with the husbands to raise. The whole “i got married and never lived my life”. Women go through middle age crisis as well, or I wish I wasn’t married syndrome.
I say I went to school around Boston… I have a PhD in biomedical engineering from MIT. I once had someone ask me if I only came to Cambridge to go “husband hunting,” which is why I say around Boston or “in the Boston area”
He looks terrible. And aged very quickly lately.
But there is something else like he’s on something as well, or maybe he just looks like shit and thats that. He used to be so cute too.
Yup, sure he’ll get her pregnant very soon. Reminds me of Jude Law, who keeps knocking up ladies (I lost count of his children).
I wonder if she’s pregnant? Not that I think this is a shotgun wedding by any means, but I do wonder if she’s pregnant.
I doubt she’ll get pregnant right away. She’s already been with him four years and is a Stanford Law student, so she has plans and ambitions for her near future at least. I’m sure she doesn’t want to interrupt her schedule with a baby right now, and she’s still young so no rush.
They look the same age.
That seems to be a “thing” with young women with much older men…they seem to age fast and look his age instead.
Must be the old man sucking the youth out of the poor lass.
It must be a thing with older women and younger men as well. I’ve noticed it those couples too.
I am surprised that people are so impressed by this girl because she went to stanford and always want to belittle amals career in law (Stanford or Oxford same difference). Whats that all about? Is it because of who she dates? Is Ryan that popular here?
This is literally the first time I’ve ever heard of this girl. Not that Ryan and George are comparable fame wise, but still. Amal is fame hungry and got shoved down out throats. SHOVED. I think Amal kind of did it to herself. All of her accomplishments got overshadowed by her pap walks and thirst.
Ok i get it. But still even if she is fame hungry she can still be good at her job. The tendency here is to doubt that she is an accomplished person because of what people call her thirst..A good lawyer doesnt have to be super serious, intellectual bookish person who isn’t seduced by the glamour of hollywood. Plenty of successful male lawyers marry younger arm candy and its not then suggested that they aren’t accomplished because they choose a partner that isn’t up to their level intellectually.
Also i read here that if she was so smart she wouldn’t be interested in Clooney, well couldn’t the same be said about Phillipes girlfriend?
@mira I think Amel is brilliant and incredibly accomplished, and if that is what they talked about her I would be like yep no kidding she has had an incredible career and is an incredibly impressive woman.
That isn’t what they talk about with her! She pap strolls, she invites magazines in for wedding dress fittings and then it’s all about her beauty (and sorry she isn’t pretty) and style. She also was constantly pushed in our face. She pretends she is above wanting the Hollywood attention but then goes out of her way to get it.
Also this is the first article about this young girl and it seems like a lot of people are saying don’t dismiss her because of her age and who she is dating she is smart, accomplished and driven woman. Which was the response to Amel at first to until she got thirsty and had massive PR not about her work with the human rights commission but her pretty hair- which she pushed!
Just my two cents.
I have seen a lot of people suggest she doesnt really work, is she always on vacation? is a fairly regular comment whenever she pops up with clooney somewhere, that her accomplishments are exaggerated by clooneys team or just generally suggesting she is a sort of a figurehead of whatever legal team she is involved in rather than an actual lawyer who does work for her client. Very much to the effect of undermining her career accomplishment. I don’t see what her thirst has to do with her ability to do work in the first place. She isn’t the first lawyer who is publicity hungry and as i said its rather funny when so many male lawyers marry young vapid arm candy and this isn’t used to bring their intelligence and- or accomplishments into question.
I am not a fan of amal especially i just think the negativity against her is a bit over the top at times to the effect where all her accomplishments gets dismissed due to the alleged thirst for attention. I think its perfectly possible to be a good legal mind, and a girl who likes glamour and attention.
I wonder if it’s because of her age. At 24, her credentials do seem impressive. When she’s 36, I wonder if her credentials will look as impressive to people. (I do not subscribe to thinking that Amal is unaccomplished though — even I find that criticism a little weird).
I can kind of get what Amal sees in George though (he’s good at faking the ability to appear intelligent in terms of his appearance, carriage, and how he speaks, and this is a compliment coming from someone who can’t stand his smarminess most of the time) — I really don’t get what this girl sees in Ryan Phillip.
I like Amal. A capable woman who knows what she wants and gets it.
I really don’t get why she gets so much heat.
I dunno about other people but i have never ever looked down upon Amal Clooney. As a matter of fact i felt the same about her and Clooney too. What would be a snobbish annoying shot like George have t talk to such an educated woman about.
Pffft…my prediction is he’ll cheat on this one too.
Well good luck to them but I get a starlet thirst from her. What she does with her Stanford law degree remains to be seen. She’s had a taste for the Hollywood life and for an attractive young woman like her it will be intoxicating and alluring. She’ll become an actress am sure. Training to be a lawyer after law school is a long difficult road that many drop out off- have a few friends who did that, said it wasn’t for them.
From what I heard from people with relatives who went through law school not unlike investment bankers young lawyers have to work 14-16 hour days to make it at a good firm. It is not for everyone.
Many young people are in denial about what it takes. They only think about the potential payout (money) and don’t realize that after 2-3 years of such life they won’t care for money that much anymore.
Being a wife of a rich man might be an easier way to get to the same goal.
This is so dismissive of a person’s accomplishments.
Good luck to them. Don’t know why people are harping on about how it won’t last forever. So what if it doesn’t?
I have always thought Ryan was a good looking guy. The odds are against any marriage surviving longevity these days but people still keep trying it. She is very attractive and they make an attractive couple. Maybe they can beat the odds.
Pleasantly surprised that nearly all the comments are giving this young woman props for her accomplishments. Usually when a young non-famous woman marries an older male celebrity, there’s an outcry of “OMG golddigging famewhore!!”
That’s a lot of make up. She look a lot older with the make up. Is he working? Does he get “papped” often enough to label her as fame hungry?
Any who…
I feel like it is easy to overlook all the ambition and whatnot that Reece Witherspoon has, and definitely had when she was with Ryan. Maybe he just likes smart strong ladies who are also pretty? It isn’t a bad type to be attracted to, I’m thinking? He seems less ambitious too, just sort of content to be pretty good at what he does but without the scrutiny of being top of the game… maybe he genuinely enjoys sitting to the side while his wives go out and conquer?
I get the opposite impression. He cheated on Reese when she was on top of her career and easily surpassing his career
Did he get something done to his eyes?
A man who needs to work a lot more. A LOT more.
I think he is stellar, and gorgeous fiance btw. Good for them.
From some angles in the pictures above she looks a bit like Harvey Weinstein’s wife.
What’s the point of an engagement when they’ve already been together for 4 years? Publicity is the only reason I can think of, like Brangelina’s ridiculous “engagement” after cohabiting for a decade.
Idrc about the age difference one way or another, but it bothers me how, before the era of constant online fact-checking, celebrities could lie about their age and rob the cradle without any public disapproval. Now days, even if a couple is only 8 years apart, it’s mentioned in the headlines and heavily emphasized.
To me the biggest discrepancy is that his only post high school education is the Barbizon Modeling and Talent School in Delaware. He “graduated,” but what does a Stanford Law student have in common with him??