A couple from Michigan is making headlines not only for their 25-year-age gap but also because the older spouse taught the younger in 2004 as a seventh-grader.
The two married women, Monica Foster (then Ketchum), 32, and wife Michelle Foster, 57, have gotten some strange looks during their surprising romance — but they’ve learned to live with outside opinions.
Monica Foster
“People ask, ‘Is that your mom?’ or even, ‘Is that your grandma?’ all the time."
Monica Foster
“We learned to laugh or brush it off, but if you see me kissing her, why would you ask if she’s my mom?”
While she stressed that they were “obviously not” romantically involved at all when she was a 13-year-old, she was a “goody goody student” and did confess to being a “teacher’s pet.”
After their time in school together ended, Monica — who had just come out as gay — searched on Facebook to see how Michelle was doing.
By August of 2021, the two began meeting up platonically and connected on deeper levels, with Monica explaining, “We were both in really dark places at that time.”
Monica Foster
“Finding someone you can relate to and be vulnerable with felt safe.”
By the following May, they ended prior relationships — Michelle filed for divorce — so that they could be together.The two were engaged by that fall and had two separate proposals for each other.
Since tying the knot on June 17, 2023, she and her two children are looking to “settle down” with Michelle.
Michelle Foster
“We’re just ready to be home together — I’m ready for some boring."