Don McLean is making headlines this week after new pictures emerged of the 73-year-old American Pie singer and his 24-year-old model girlfriend Paris Dylan.
While some people are noting the big age difference between the pair — 49 years — they appear to be going strong.
The couple have reportedly been together since November 2016 and first confirmed their relationship on social media in October 2017:
Even though McLean’s rep at first denied the relationship, calling it purely professional, Paris keeps referring to him as her love on social media.
The two started dating after Don ended his second marriage, to Patrisha Shnier. They had been married for 29 years but split in 2016, the same year that he started dating Dylan.
But who is the woman who has captivated Don and is now traveling around with him on tour?
Paris Dylan was born in 1994 in Riverside, California, but she’s currently based in Palm Desert, California.
She works as a model and her personal website tells how she became popular on Instagram, where she had 445,000 followers at the time of writing, due to her appearance and figure.
She has featured on the websites of the CHIVE, MAXIM, and Playboy, and has pictures of herself for sale on her website.
Dylan hasn’t talked about Don’s previous marriages, but the Daily Mail reveals that a Maine court gave Don’s ex-wife an order of protection against him.
He had pleaded guilty in July 2016 to a domestic violence assault, just months before he started dating Paris. He was reportedly ordered to stay out of trouble and pay a $3,000 fine. He has two children with his ex-wife, called Jackie and Wyatt.
Paris posted an Instagram Live video yesterday which showed her dancing to Kanye West’s Golddigger and saying she liked her men “rich and smooth”.
In May 2012, Dylan featured on an episode of MTV’s Catfish TV show, with hosts Max Joseph and Nev Schulman wanting to feature her story t0 talk about how crazy a catfish story can get.
Her tale began back in 2012, when she thought she was talking to NBA player Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen.
Chris thought he was talking to Paris as well, but there was actually someone else responding to both their messages.
Dylan would send her message to who she thought was Chris, and the person would then forward the message to him. When he replied, the person would forward the messages to Paris. At the time, she was 17 years old and Chris was 33.
.@NevSchulman and @maxjoseph need to shut this sh*t right down. #Catfish pic.twitter.com/1tzXma3C0G
— Catfish (@CatfishMTV) May 18, 2017
The two later met up and spent a weekend together at his home. They talked for months, but the relationship ended with Paris wanting out.
It was later revealed that it was a soft-spoken Canadian woman from Easterville, Manitoba, who had been the middle woman in their relationship.
Shelly Chartier pleaded guilty to charges of impersonation, extortion and making threats. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in 2016.
Paris’s story got her a feature episode on ABC’s 20/20. Her story on Catfish resulted in people searching for her, growing her social media presence.
Paris Dylan and Don McLean are currently in Paris, France, on a romantic trip while he tours.