A 21-year-old British influencer has defended her relationship with a 16-year-old boy after she copped backlash over their five-year age gap.
Tasha Newcombe recently went public with her new boyfriend Marko Vituk on social media, but after detailing her dating life with her almost 270,000 followers, many labeled the relationship “insane,” noting she’s an adult while he is a “minor.”
After insisting she’s not fazed by the outrage she’s copping on TikTok, Tasha has since appeared on The Blue Tick Show alongside Marko where the pair hit back at claims their relationship was “wrong.”
“I am in a relationship with someone who’s five years younger than me and I know a lot of people are gonna have their opinions on that and quite rightly so, you’re allowed to have your opinions, that’s your free will,” she said on the popular YouTube podcast, hosted by Mikey Melin.
“Although my relationship is very new, I just have to say that this boy is genuinely the most mature, kind, loving person I’ve ever been in a relationship with.
“I will not stand for hate, directed at me, my friends or family.”
She also went on to explain how the pair first met after initially speaking online, stating she had no intention of pursuing the teen.
“I’d told Marko I’d go out for food with him, I didn’t see it as a date or anything,” Tasha explained.
“I was also unsure of meeting him because I’ve actually never dated someone younger than me in my life.
“I didn’t know what kind of challenges that was gonna bring forward for me but regardless, I’m in a relationship with him now.
“It’s my life, I’m going to live my life how I want to live my life. If I decide I want to be in a relationship with him, I can because it is legal. Whether you think it’s morally right or not, it is legal.”
Many of the “haters” who reacted to the new couple’s news had been outraged by their age gap, with some asking: “Is this legal?”
The legal age for consensual sex varies between 16 and 17 years across Australian state and territory jurisdictions. In the UK, the legal age of consent is 16.
It did little to quell the backlash, with many blasting Tasha for being romantically linked to a teenage boy,
“He’s only just finished his school exams,” one commented.
“Do you have to ask his mum if he can come out,” another joked.
Someone else argued that if it was the other way around, people wouldn’t be able to “ignore it”, describing the situation as “insane.”
But Tasha said the judgmental comments don’t bother her or Marko, stating people should just unfollow or hit the block button if they don’t want to see it.
“Is it affecting your life? No. Me and my boyfriend are in a very beautiful, loving, happy and healthy relationship and the fact that people are sitting there, worried and throwing such serious accusations at me, is sick and twisted,” she said.
However, she also revealed that it wasn’t just strangers on the internet who had condemned her romance, as her best friend of 11-years was also not happy about her new boyfriend.
“I completely lost my best friend for being with Marko,” she told the podcast.
“She said, ‘I just can’t be associated with you’, and I told her I didn’t care.
“But yeah, she fully cut me off. It’s kind of petty.”
The remarks however only caused further criticism of her and Marko’s romance, with one writing: “How does she not see it’s wrong when even her friends are cutting her off.”