Do you all remember the British couple Aaron Johnson and Sam Taylor-Wood? Sam is a 43 year old director, photographer and artist who fell in love with her leading man, a then 18-year-old actor Aaron Johnson (he was the star of Kick-Ass). Over the course of a year and a half, they began dating, then shacking up, then he got her knocked up, and then they became engaged. Aaron just turned 20 years old a few weeks ago. And just in time! Because who likes to hear “19-year-old father…”? That’s right, Sam gave birth on Wednesday, to a little girl the couple named Wylda Rae, from Ye Olde English, meaning “untamed… Rae” or “willow tree”.

Artist Sam Taylor-Wood has given birth to a little girl – her first child with her toy-boy fiance actor Aaron Johnson. The acclaimed British artist turned film director, 43, gave birth to Wylda Rae today with her 20-year-old lover by her side.

Johnson’s Kick Ass co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse confirmed the news as he wrote on his Twitter account: ‘Crazier news. Aaron Johnson’s baby was born!! So exciting!’

The pair met on the set of Miss Taylor-Wood’s directorial debut Nowhere Boy, where Mr Johnson played a young John Lennon. Their relationship raised eyebrows, but the artist, who has two daughters by her ex-husband, art dealer Jay Jopling, recently insisted that the age gap between them was not a problem.

Speaking in May, Miss Taylor-Wood stated: ‘I’m in love, I’m blissfully content and I’m pregnant. No one’s getting hurt. We’re in a loving relationship. We’re engaged. Everyone who matters is happy. Hang on… Exactly which bit of that do I have to defend or apologise for?”

Johnson, in turn, said that his fiancée was far younger in spirit than her age as he called himself an ‘old soul’. She then replied: ‘That’s definitely what he is. Since childhood he’s spent so much time away from home and in the company of established actors. I think it made him grow up fast. This whole age thing is abstract to us anyway. We don’t ever think about it. He’s more mature now than are a lot of men my age. He stops me from spinning out and being a complete nutter, which I’m definitely capable of. He grounds me and keeps me calmer.’

Just weeks after giving birth for the first time to her daughter Angelica, now 13, Miss Taylor-Wood was diagnosed with colon cancer. She recovered from that, however, then in 2000 was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. But she managed to battle back.

She added: ‘You know, this whole age obsession thing is funny. If I were going out with another woman, you wouldn’t ask me what advice I’d give to someone contemplating doing the same thing. If I were in a mixed race relationship, you wouldn’t say, ‘So what’s it like?’ People in love don’t see gender, colour or religion. Or age. It’s about the other person, the one that you love and who loves you. You don’t think of them in terms of a label. You just go with your heart. This, if anything, is what I find frustrating, the having to think of ways for people to accept our situation. You try and try and eventually you just think, ‘Oh, f*** it.’’

Mr Johnson, who recently appeared in the critically lauded film, Kick-Ass, lives with Miss Taylor-Wood and her daughters, Angelica and five-year-old Jessie, in an £11 million north London townhouse. It is believed that she was able to afford the huge property without a mortgage as part of her 2008 divorce settlement from art dealer Jay Jopling, who is said to have a fortune of £100million. In 1993 he set up the White Cube Gallery in London and has sold works by many of the world’s most famous artists, including Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst.

Asked in a recent interview whether she was claiming 50 per cent of Jopling’s money and art collection, she said: ‘No, nothing like that. I don’t want any battle on that front. We’re all done and settled and fine.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Congratulations to the happy family. For real. I’m glad that Sam’s pregnancy was healthy and that she gave birth without any complications. I wonder if Aaron is prepared for the life that he and Sam have gotten themselves into? He’s now father of one, stepfather of two, and the fiancée and soon-to-be-husband of a 43-year-old woman with a history of health problems. But I get it, love knows no bounds, etc, etc. They fell in love, and I don’t really judge them for that.

What bothered me – and still bothers me – is that Sam moved so quickly on someone so young, and that she seems to be using him completely as her emotional and psychological crutch (“Since childhood he’s spent so much time away from home and in the company of established actors. I think it made him grow up fast… He’s more mature now than are a lot of men my age. He stops me from spinning out and being a complete nutter, which I’m definitely capable of. He grounds me and keeps me calmer.”). What happens when he’s got his 20-year-old sh-t to worry about and can’t hack being what “grounds” her? Yes, call me sexist, whatever, but I’ve called out other couples where they genders were reversed, and when there’s this kind of out-of-whack age difference. I understand that they’re in love now – what I don’t understand if why we’re all supposed to think it’s going to last longer than a couple of years.

Sam and Aaron on May 19, May 26 & June 8, 2010. Credit: WENN.