Kathy Griffin says her recent tease about dating a 22-year-old was not real. In an Instagram post on July 10, the comedian said the post was a "sociological experiment" meant to test how people would react to an older woman being linked to a much younger man, according to E! News.
Griffin, 65, explained that the man in the photo had actually been helping her with security during a trip to New York City. A day earlier, she had posted the image with the caption, "He’s 22. Have at it, internet."
In her follow-up post, Griffin said the reaction was interesting because the comments on Instagram were mostly supportive, while Threads brought more criticism and accusations of "grooming" and inappropriate behavior, according to E! News. She said the response highlighted a double standard around age-gap relationships.
Griffin also pointed to several celebrity couples with large age differences, including Luke Wilson and Kendall Yates, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé. She added that she was just having "a little harmless fun" with her followers.
