EXCLUSIVE: Fran Sawyer is looking for love but is struggling to find it – she thinks that the romanticisation of having a ‘cougar’ is attracting young lads and putting off older blokes
A single mum revealed she can’t find love – as only young lads are interested in her ageless looks.
Fran Sawyer, a 55-year-old based in Basingstoke, has buckets full of brains and beauty. But the global inventor and property owner doesn’t have much luck in the dating department.
The parent-of-two has been celibate for seven years and just can’t manage to find Mr. Right. And Fran thinks she knows exactly why this is.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Star, the brunette beauty – who used to be a model – claimed social media and dating apps are to blame for the downfall of finding true love in this day and age.
“I went on Hinge and Bumble and all I find is 18 and 21-year-olds asking me out,” Fran told us.
“It’s gone mad social media, it’s killed true romance where you’re actually supposed to fall in love. Love conquers all really, because we all don’t want to be on our own really.
“All I’m getting is young-young men. So I just thought to myself, on social media they don’t really want to find love, they’re just ‘advertising’ their social media on the dating sites.
“So where is the true love? Where is the old romance gone? It’s killed it a bit. It’s got so unreal with TV shows and social media – they keep putting everyone in a box and they don’t get to see everybody.
“I mean I’m getting called ‘cougar’ all of the time, well I wouldn’t go out with an 18-year-old – we have nothing in common!”
Fran says that she gets countless of DM’s on Instagram daily from young lads who are looking for a ‘cougar’.
But, the single mum – with a 19-year-old son and 28-year-old daughter – wouldn’t dare date young men who are new to the dating scene. She thinks that social media – and American Pie – have created an idealistic view about dating an older woman, and that having a ‘cougar’ is desirable or an achievement for a man.
She said: “I think it’s just Sєx, isn’t it. They think ‘oh the older woman knows a thing or two’.
“But really I’m just a lazy lover. I’m old school, you know! I suppose it goes back to American Pie with Stifler’s mum as I’ve been called that the last 10 years. So that’s so popular.
“Even if I’ve got a dress on and I’m casual and taking pictures for my social media – that’s quite boring – all I get is young guys. They’ve branded me a cougar, I guess that’s why people don’t take me seriously I suppose.”
The single mum doesn’t have much luck at the other end of the spectrum either. She struggles to find a man her own age as she says that her youthful looks and successful career puts them off.
Fran has been married once before and will not give up on searching for her happily ever after – even though a Prince Charming is hard to come by.
She added: “When I do go on dates, I’m 55 and they might be 45. I don’t think that’s much of a gap.
” But they say ‘you’re too confident’ and ‘I don’t know if I could take you on’ or they’re interested in how much money I’ve got in the bank or they say ‘you’re too Sєxy’.
“I just think that I can’t see what I look like, I’m just looking for love and looking for a soulmate and have that happily ever after. But I can’t get my happy ever after – it’s really weird.”