Falling in love after 50! From Bennifer 2.0 to George Clooney, a look at stars who found romance later in life... after Valerie Bertinelli, 63, met her mate

Not all celebrities fall in love in their 20s like they do in the movies. Some find the love of their lives later in life.

Valerie Bertinelli shared this week that she has fallen in love again at the age of 63.

The Hot In Cleveland actress said she made friends with the new love interest online after he slid into her DMs, then when they met in person she knew it was a match.

The former wife of the late rocker Eddie Van Halen also said it was a shock to her to find love once again at 63, especially after a bitter divorce with Tom Vitale.

Sometimes late-in-life love is the best.

Jennifer Lopez said she was thrilled when she wed Ben Affleck in 2022. She was 52 and he was 49.

And the This Is Me... Now singer added that the second time around was even sweeter with Ben; they were engaged 20 years ago but broke it off.

George Clooney, 62, was 51 when he met lawyer Amal Clooney; they wed soon after in Italy and had two kids.

And in the past year Brad Pitt, 60, has fallen for jewelry executive Ines De Ramon after a sad split with wife Angelina Jolie, the mother of his six kids. 

Here is a look at which luminaries have found happiness post 50. 

JENNIFER LOPEZ AND BEN AFFLECK

They fell in love in 2001 on the set of their movie Gigli which came out two years later. It looked like they were going to walk down the aisle in Malibu but then the movie stars called the romance off.

Twenty years later they started talking again - she was 50 and he was 48.

Then in April 2022 Lopez announced Affleck had proposed with a green diamond. 'True love exists and forever is real,' she wrote.

The pair wed first in Las Vegas then had a massive ceremony in Georgia in the summer of 2023.

This year their romance was the highlight of her movie and album both titled This Is Me... Now.

They also discussed their fairytale romance (and all the bumps that came with it) in the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told.

Together the love birds often light up red carpets while hand in hand, are seen kissing when running errands, and gush about each other in interviews.

They reside in a huge $60m mansion in the quiet neighborhood of Bel Air in Los Angeles along with her twins Max and Emme and his three kids with Jennifer Garner: Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.

In February she broke down in tears at her film premiere as she paid an emotional tribute to Ben Affleck for 'inspiring' her life and career, saying to him: 'Thank you for believing in me.'

In a clip uploaded to Instagram of Jennifer on stage, the singer said: '[Ben is] the person who inspired this for me. Who has inspired me my whole life. He inspired an album 20 years ago, and I know that he hates that I'm doing this right now.'

Jennifer continued: 'He's just like "Please, shut up" - no! And I say no. I say I love you, and thank you for believing in me, and helping me believe in myself and helping me to grown every single day. 

'Thank you for the family that we've created, and our children, and everything that you do for me. You'll never know what it is to be able to share this lifetime and have you be my love. Thank you.'

GEORGE CLOONEY AND AMAL ALAMUDIN

He was one of the Hollywood bad boys who dated models and actresses like Krista Allen, Celine Balitran and Stacy Keibler.

It looked like he would never get married or have kids. 

But then George Clooney found the love of his life at the age of 51.

He began dating the human rights lawyer Amal Alamudin, now 46, in 2013 after connecting over their mutual interest in campaigning work. 

They wed at the Aman Canal Grande luxury resort in Venice, Italy in front of their celebrity friends like Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Cindy Crawford in 2014. 

Then they welcomed twins Ella and Alexander in 2017.

Over the years, the Ocean's 11 star — who was previously known as Hollywood's most eligible bachelor — has expressed how Amal stole his heart.

Clooney gushed over his wife Amal during an appearance on Lorraine in January.

The Hollywood actor, now 62, who celebrated his ninth wedding anniversary with Amal, in September, described her as 'a force of nature' and 'so homely'.

During a chat with George, Lorraine asked the star if he had attended The Fashion Awards by Pandora, where his wife was recently pictured.

George cheekily replied: 'Do I look like I was at a fashion award?'

He added: 'If I'm in a picture with my wife, they do cut me out. No, I wasn't there, I sadly missed the fashion awards, which really cuts me there [points to his heart].'

Lorraine then asked George if he had got used to being the elbow in the frame when he is pictured with Amal. 

He replied: 'They always say, "George was nice enough to hold the umbrella for his gorgeous wife". She is a force of nature and so homely, but we do what we can, we survive.'

It comes after George told ET on the red carpet at the premiere of his new film The Boys in the Boat, that he accepts his wife often steals the limelight whenever they're at an event together.

'My entire career has been reduced to a plus-one now,' she teased. 'I did one of those Women in Film things a couple years ago, and I had to introduce myself as 'Amal Clooney's husband' because, honestly, I was dead otherwise.'

BRAD PITT AND INES DE RAMON

Brad Pitt was 58 when he fell for girlfriend Ines de Ramon after his long, hard divorce and custody dispute with Angelina Jolie.

The film star, now 60, was first seen with de Ramon at a November 2022 Bono concert in Los Angeles.

They were seen chatting with Sean Penn, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

Before dating Pitt, de Ramon - an executive for Anita Ko Jewelry - was married to Vampire Diaries actor Paul Wesley, 41, from 2019 until their split in September of 2022, according to People.

There have been reports that Brad and Ines are already living together.

'He is on top of the world again' in his love life, an insider told People in February.

The Fight Club actor 'has a cheeky smile every time he is around' de Ramon, and 'is happy to live with her too,' the source said.'

The relationship between the Shawnee, Oklahoma-born actor and de Ramon 'is serious,' the source said, noting that 'this is Brad's first girlfriend since [his] divorce' from Jolie, 48.

The source praised the patience the eligible bachelor exhibited following the his 2016 split with Jolie, adding, 'He didn't settle and it's paying off.'

'Since the divorce, Brad's dated but never seriously - this is the first serious relationship and he couldn't be happier.'

Pitt and Jolie dated for nine years until tying the knot in 2014, announcing their split in 2016. 

The former couple are parents to six children: Maddox, 21, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15.

In recent years, Pitt has been seen in a number of films, including the 2022 thriller Bullet Train, the 2022 historical drama Babylon and the 2022 action adventure film The Lost City.

Among the projects he has in the works includes a collaboration with Quentin Tarantino tentatively titled The Movie Critic; a reunion with Ocean 11's costar George Clooney in a film titled Wolfs; and a motion picture about Formula One racing.

HARRISON FORD AND CALISTA FLOCKHART

When Harrison Ford started dating Calista Flockhart in 2002, many wondered if they would last. 

Not only did they have a 22-year age gap between them - Harrison was 60 and Calista was 38 - but the actor had previously earned a reputation as a womanizer.

More than two decades later, however, the pair are still going strong. 

They have now been happily married for 13 years and have raised a son together.

Their initial meeting was controversial in itself. 

They first crossed paths at an awards show in 2002, but rumors later swirled that she purposely spilled wine on the actor, now 80, so that they could talk to one another - something she has vehemently denied.

And their first date was far from ordinary too, since the Ally McBeal star made her friend and costar James Marsden accompany her - which meant the three of them enjoyed an awkward dinner together before going back to Harrison's house for some drinks.

Despite the cards stacked against them, Harrison and Calista fell quickly in love - but when they went public with their romance that fall, their massive difference in age raised many eyebrows.

One thing has been made clear by the pairing - their age gap has never been an issue for them. 

Calista once stated in an interview that it 'doesn't factor into their relationship at all,' while insisting that she's still attracted to the now-80-year-old's 'little boy' looks.

Harrison has also been open about how happy is he that he finally found love after two failed marriages, while reminding others, 'There is a potential for it at any stage of your life.'

Most recently, the normally low-key couple became a viral sensation after Calista shared a snap of herself getting ready to attend the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week, and fans noticed that Harrison was staring adoringly at her in the background.

 RICHARD GERE AND ALEJANDRA SILVA

Richard Gere, 74, has quite the romance record: he was married to both Cindy Crawford and Carey Lowell, and has dated models Laura Bailey, Tina Chow, Dalila Di Lazzaro, and Padma Lakshmi.

But the Pretty Woman actor seems to have finally found true love with publicist Alejandra Silva, 41.

He met her when he was 64-years-old and she was 31-years-old.

They began dating in 2014 and made things official with a wedding in 2018.

Alejandra and Richard share two young sons, Alexander, four, and their son whose name they have not made public.

The Runaway Bride actor does not have any social media, while his wife boasts 100K followers on Instagram, but does not show the faces of their children on the platform.

Silva told HOLA! USA magazine in May of 2018: 'I'm so in love...every morning he asks, "What would make you happy today?" What's more romantic than a man who composes songs about you every day?' 

Richard has been married twice before, initially a short-lived union with Crawford from 1991-1995, before then marrying Lowell in 2002, who he split with 14 years later.

He shares son Homer, 22, with Carey. 

While Alejandra is also mother to son Albert, born in 2012, with ex-husband Govind Friedland.

BARBRA STREISAND AND JAMES BROLIN 

Barbra Streisand was 55-years-old when she married actor James Brolin in 1998.

Streisand had been married to Elliot Gould from 1961 to 1973 and shares her son Jason with him. 

While Brolin had been down the altar twice before. Once with casting agent Jane Agee for 20 years, then with Jane Smithers for almost 10 years. 

But she found lasting love with Brolin.

In November 2023 she credited her husband with inspiring one of the most popular rock songs of the late 20th century, the Aerosmith track I Don't Want To Miss A Thing. 

The 81-year-old legend was promoting memoir, My Name Is Barbra, on The Howard Stern Show, when she revealed this interesting tidbit of music history. 

The Grammy winner said she and her husband James, 83, who was celibate for three years before they married in 1998, were lying in bed, enjoying a bit of pillow talk.

'I don't want to fall asleep because then I'll miss you,' the actor told his beloved. 

It was at that moment the Evergreen singer agreed to his most recent proposal saying, 'OK, yes, I'll marry you.'

Barbra shared that story in an interview on 20/20 with Barbra Walters in 1997 and songwriter Diane Warren learned about it. 

She verified the anecdote in an interview with Shortlist in 2016. 

'Someone told me there was an interview with Barbra Streisand and her husband and he had said how he doesn't like to go to sleep, you know, if he misses her and I was like, "Wow that's a cool idea for a song if I can figure that out," and that's where I got the title from.

The song was included over the closing credits of the film Armageddon.

'And I kept it in the back of my head and when that movie came round I thought, "You know, I'm gonna write this song because it could be about the end of the world - it could fit that storyline or it could fit this love story."'

I Don't Want To Miss a Thing debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and is Aerosmith's only number one song to date.

The hit also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. 

As for making more movies of her own, the EGOT says she's might do another, but only behind the camera.

VALERIE BERTINELLI AND HER MYSTERY MAN 

Valerie Bertinelli shared this week she has a new boyfriend, who is a writer 10 years her junior from the East Coast.

The One Day At A Time veteran has told People in their cover story that she met the man online years ago and they only became romantic earlier this year, but she still will not share his identity.

'I fell in love when I least expected it!' the 63-year-old brunette beauty revealed to the magazine.

'I'm in love,' Bertinelli added. 'It's a seesaw of emotions because I was adamant I was never falling in love again.

'I was supposed to die with my six cats and my dog and very happily live the rest of my years alone — I'm good alone,' she said.

'My belly is flip-flopping. This was not supposed to happen.'

She then shared: 'It's crazy the comfort level. It feels incredibly right.' 

Valerie added that she has been working on herself with therapy and long walks with her dog. 

And her new book Indulge pushed her to be more open. 'The cookbook was an offshoot of the emotional and mental healing I've been doing,' she said,

'First came the work. Why I thought I didn't deserve to be loved. Why I was using food to numb my feelings. All the drama and trauma I hadn't dealt with — with Ed and my last marriage.'

Ed is Eddie Van Halen, her first husband who died. And her last marriage was to Tom Vitale.

She first broke the news in mid March that she was in love.

The star gave a glowing interview to USA Today about her new romance, though she refrained from offering any personal details about him such as his name. 

'I've met someone. And I'm incredibly grateful for him. It's unlike any relationship that I've ever experienced with a man,' she effervesced.

'I don't want to say too much, but I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have met him, because I wasn't expecting it!' she added.

'He was not on my radar. I was going to die with my six cats and my dog and be incredibly happy doing it,' the One Day At A Time star confessed. 'So this came out of left field, and I'm grateful it did. He's very special.'

With regards to her decision to announce the relationship on Instagram this week, she marveled: 'What was I doing?…I just can't help it. When I'm flipping happy, it's all over me, and he's one of the main reasons.

'I really want women and men to take away that it's the work that you do (on yourself) that can lead you to meeting someone like I've been lucky enough to meet right now. This would not have happened three years ago, four years ago, last year - it wouldn't have. And I feel incredibly lucky to have met him and made a connection with him.'

Bertinelli filed for divorce from her second husband, financial planner Tom Vitale, in November of 2021.

Their divorce was finalized a year later, with a settlement that saw Valerie forced to fork over an eyewatering $2.2 million to Tom.