Julia Child Had A Sizable Age Gap With Her Husband

Before there was Martha Stewart with her cookbooks and TV shows and Ina Garten as the "Barefoot Contessa," the world had Julia Child to help guide them through cooking incredible meals. Julia was a cookbook author with her own TV show in the 1960s, and she's credited with bringing French cooking to everyday Americans. As for who helped Julia get hooked on French food and helped build her career behind the scenes? That would be her husband, Paul Child, who was 10 years older than her.

The two of them met during World War II when they were both working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). It doesn't sound like it was love at first sight when they met. Paul described her in letters as "'an extremely sloppy thinker' with 'an unbecoming blond mustache' who was 'unable to sustain ideas for long,'" according to the Los Angeles Times.

But he clearly got over any misgivings. And with his age and experience in the world, he helped broaden Julia's horizons when they first got together. "I often compare their relationship to 'My Fair Lady,'" Alex Prud'homme, Julia's grand-nephew, told the Los Angeles Times, "where she's the willing student like Eliza Doolittle and he's the sophisticated older man who tutors her in culture and art and politics."

Julia and Paul Child got married in 1948 and ended up moving to Paris for Paul's work. Paul had lived there before, but it was a first for Julia. It was their first French meal together that made Julia fall in love with French food. And because Julia loved the food so much and wanted to get into cooking, she enrolled in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, practicing her cooking skills by making meals for Paul. Her love for cooking and her love for Paul persisted throughout the rest of their lives. Paul died in 1994.

It sounds like the perfect partnership, even with, or perhaps because of, their age difference. As Alex Prud'homme noted to the Los Angeles Times, "Paul was the leader of their relationship during the first half, and when he retired, everything flipped. It was very intentional." Paul's retirement was in 1961, so he could focus on helping support Julia as she launched what would become a highly successful TV and cookbook career in the mid 1960s, becoming one of the country's first celebrity chefs.

Paul's support was very much appreciated. Julia referred to him in one of her cookbooks as "the man who is always there: porter, dishwasher, official photographer, mushroom dicer and onion chopper, editor, fish illustrator, manager, taster, idea man, resident poet, and husband," according to Town and Country.