Are we too cynical about older men marrying younger women, wonders Andrea Smith

In season two of Sex and the City, there's a very funny episode in which man-eater Samantha Jones is propositioned by a septuagenarian billionaire called Ed. Showering her with expensive jewellery, Ed and his "pocket full of Viagra" want to show the highly sexed 40-something a good time.

She's very tempted, too, reckoning that "all cats look the same in the dark," and, indeed, reports back that, with the lights off, "Ed's lips were not the lips of an older man and Ed's touch was not the touch of an older man."

Unfortunately, it all came to an end when he leaves the bed to go to the bathroom, and Samantha realises that Ed's wrinkly, skinny bum is, alas, "the arse of an older man".

Luckily for older men and their saggy nether regions, it seems that plenty of younger women are appreciative of the myriad charms of the older gentleman. Take billionaire financier George Soros, 82, who recently proposed to his 40-year-old girlfriend Tamiko Bolton. While one could assume that his soon-to-be-third-wife Tamiko might be attracted to the lavish lifestyle that accompanies marrying a billionaire, Soros's lawyer has been quick to set the record straight on that matter:

"It is well known that Mr Soros will leave the bulk of his estate to charity but he intends to provide generously for his wife," he sniffed.

While some would find it odd that people are publicly discussing the contents of your (not-so) young man's will before you even limp up the aisle together, one presumes that the bendy Ms Bolton, who runs a website dedicated to yoga education, will be consoled by the Graff diamond in a platinum setting on a rose gold band that is currently sparkling on her left hand.

When older men marry younger women, cynicism and disapproval tend to flourish, as John Cleese, 72, who recently married his fourth wife Jennifer Wade, 41, found out. While Cleese declared himself to be blissfully happy, some of his old chums were struck off the guest list for expressing their reservations on the nuptials. There was his fellow Monty Python pal Terry Gilliam, for one, who warned Cleese two years ago that he would be "stupid" to marry the American divorcee; and then there was Jeffrey Archer, who also took a somewhat cynical view of proceedings. "Should they marry, she will be the fourth Mrs Cleese," he said. "So by the time he's finished paying off the third Mrs Cleese with his Alimony Tour, the timing should be perfect to open a new tour for the fourth."

And women are meant to be the bitchy ones?

The phenomenon of the older man and younger woman is nothing new, dating back to medieval times, when men actively sought fertile women who could produce children. And more recently, Nelson Mandela celebrated his 80th birthday in 1998 by marrying his third wife Graca Machel (nee Simbine), who is almost 27 years younger than him. Other older man/younger woman combos include painter Pablo Picasso and model Jacqueline Roque (an age gap of 45 years), author JD Salinger and Colleen O'Neill (40 years), actor Clint Eastwood and Dina Ruiz (35 years), media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng (38 years), Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy (20 years) and actor Warren Beatty and Annette Benning (21 years). Most, it has to be said, lived happily ever after. Or at least had a good run at it!

When the tables are turned and the woman is older than the man, the whole thing becomes a laughing matter and the woman is deemed to be somewhat sad -- or deluded. Think of the now split-up Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and their 15-year age difference. And then last summer, the very wealthy Spanish 85-year-old Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, a duchess seven times over, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24 times, had to give away her vast fortune to stop her outraged children blocking her plans to marry civil servant Alfonso Diez, who is 24 years her junior. Of course, other factors could come into the equation, as evidenced by the union of Malaysian Sudar Marto, 105, who married a 22-year-old maid Ely Maryulianti Rahmat in 2006. As it happened, he was still married to his previous wife, who, 69 and bedridden, welcomed the young Ely into the marriage as she "appreciated her caregiving".

A dating agency owner once told me that 40-something women were the hardest to "match" because of their age. If a man over 40 was looking to become a father, he would tend to seek a much younger woman, because she was less likely to have fertility problems. And if he didn't want kids, he would run a mile from the 40-something woman, in case she had devious designs on his precious sperm. Unlike men, and in a cruel quirk of nature, women's fertility lasts for a finite period while men can father children until the day they die. Robert de Niro was 68 when he became a father to daughter Helen Grace, while Rod Stewart became a father for the first time at 19 and for the seventh time at 60.

And, it was announced this week that Brazilian entertainer Wagner, 56, of The X Factor and TV3's Celebrity Head Chef fame, is to become a father for the second time, as his 20-year-old girlfriend Lydia Longville is pregnant.

Less cynically, there was something really heart-warming about the recent revelation that Paddy O'Keeffe, 89, founder of The Farmer's Journal, will marry Jane O'Callaghan, 73, doyenne of Longueville House in Mallow. Having both lost their previous spouses, Michael and Ann, the happy couple are delighted at finding someone special again in the autumn of their lives, and will be married in Cork on October 18.

"It is a huge compliment to Michael and Ann that we are going forward again and getting married," said Jane in a recent interview with Barry Egan. "You're supposed to be dead -- sitting at home eating bread and milk. Life is about sharing."

Paddy and Jane have admitted that they are getting married rather than living together, as they think it would be a bad example to their grandchildren to "live in sin".

You are never too old for love is the moral of this tale, and seeing two older people grabbing the opportunity for happiness with both hands is lovely, and gives hope to the rest of us.

But, ladies, if you're going for an older man, don't expect their bums to be peachy.