Rocker Billy Corgan, 59, defends age gap with wife Chloe, 33, calls it an ‘advantage’
Updated . First published at
Smashing Pumpkins star Billy Corgan has spoken on the 26-year age gap in his relationship with wife Chloe Mendel, calling it an “advantage”.
The 59-year-old US rocker, who married fashion designer Mendel, 33, in 2023, made the rare comment on New York Time’s Popcast podcast.
Corgan and Mendel pictured in 2024. The frontman said the age gap with his wife was an “advantage” in their marriage. John Lamparski/Getty Image
Opening up about their generational gap, and having met his wife in 2012, Corgan admitted Mendel had “a different sense of self-confidence” about her.
“Her youth was an advantage because she hadn’t been wounded like so many people are because you just go through life, and you get wounded,” he explained.
“So I had the advantage of somebody who was really open to love and the possibility for whatever reason, just decided not to judge me for who I was, particularly in that moment.”
Corgan explained that like his wife, “a lot of women born in the ’90s” weren’t “affected” by the same politics experienced by women in his generation.
“So you couldn’t connect with women of your generation?” co-host Joe Coscarelli clarified.
“I met a lot of broken women along the way. I was shocked at the stories I would hear, what they’d been through,” Corgan tried to explain.
The star added: “It was harder to put those pieces together if you’re broken and they’re broken.”
The musician said when meeting his wife, 26 years his junior, she didn’t judge him for what he was during a low point in his life. YouTube/@Popcast
Corgan and Mendel reportedly began dating in 2012. They were introduced by a mutual friend when Corgan was 44 and Mendel was 19.
They got engaged 10 years later in 2022.
During and since that time they have welcomed three children: son Augustus, 10, and daughters Philomena, eight, and Juno, one.
The couple welcomed their first child, son Augustus, in 2015. Instagram/@chloemendel
They married in 2023 and documented their nuptials in the couple’s 2024 reality show, Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland..
The guitarist and frontman credited his partner of 14 years for giving him the family life he “never had”.
“Trust me, I’m the luckiest guy in the world and I don’t mean this in the material sense because I mean it in a spiritual sense,” he acknowledged.
“It’s the greatest period of my life.”
Corgan and Mendel share three children. Instagram/@chloemendel
