‘Although his speech is hard to understand, he says he’s happy’ Ever since they became a couple, Doreen Abel, 69, and her partner Ian, 57, had joked about their 12-year age difference. ‘You don’t want to end up caring for an old girl like me,’ Doreen often teased.
The couple met at the pub where they both worked in London in January 1996, when Doreen was in her late 40s and Ian was in his mid-30s.
Doreen was Ian’s manager. She’d been divorced for a few months, and had four children – Ian, now 50, Tina, 46, Suzy, 45, and Archie, 41. But that didn’t deter Ian.
Over time, the couple grew close and, finally, in the summer, they started dating.
Both art enthusiasts, they would regularly visit galleries together…
