Comedian Dane Cook, 50, faced backlash this week after news broke that he proposed to “longtime” girlfriend Kelsi Taylor, who is 27 years younger than he is.
Cook revealed three years ago that the couple met one night “at a game night I host at my place,” and that they started out as friends and that it escalated from there.
“I was so ready to ask her. I was completely zen about it,” Cook said in an interview this week. “The evening of the proposal was incredibly beautiful, the weather was perfect, sunset was spectacular, and I was just quite simply very happy.”
“I was asking my best friend, the woman who I’ve shared some of the greatest times of my life with, to marry me so we can start the next chapter our of lives together. I was also thinking of how absolutely stunning she looked,” he continued. “I’m about to spend the rest of my life with my favorite person and my best friend — what is there to not look forward to? Family has always been such an important part of my life and the idea of expanding it and starting our own family together with the man of my dreams just fills my heart,” Taylor said.
Hangin’ w/ the woman I love. pic.twitter.com/8e2PnaNdIS
— Dane Cook (@DaneCook) August 3, 2022
The news quickly creeped out many on social media who noted that Taylor was only 18 when she and Cook started dating.
“Just trying to imagine if even one of my friends now, in our 30s, said they had a ‘close friend’ who was 17. At 45?? Dane Cook I guess waited until her 18th birthday but PSA: if you’re waiting until something is ‘technically not a crime’ … buddy, you have already f***ed up,” Writer Olivia Messer tweeted. “This was, admittedly, very hard to grasp as a teenager, which is exactly how it happens. And I’m truly sad for what today must feel like to her. But the other adults??? When Dane Cook brought this girl to parties and dinners, or mentioned it to his friends? SOMEBODY, ANYBODY??”
“I hope the graphics person who had to slap the ‘People Exclusive’ label on a photo of Dane Cook in 2022 at least had a moment where they asked themselves what decisions brought them here,” writer Chase Mitchell tweeted.
I hope the graphics person who had to slap the "People Exclusive" label on a photo of Dane Cook in 2022 at least had a moment where they asked themselves what decisions brought them here pic.twitter.com/jWnWfYs3JV
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) August 3, 2022
Taylor said that when Cook proposed to her, which actually happened a few weeks ago during a trip to York Beach, Maine, that her “stomach flipped.”
“I couldn’t have asked for the moment to have been more perfect. All that was going through my brain was, ‘Wait, is this actually happening right now? Is he proposing?’” she said. “I was also just really focused on what he was saying to me because I was trying desperately to etch the words into my brain. They were so beautiful, I really wanted to soak it in.”
Whoever is doing Dane Cook’s Botox and fillers needs to be in JAIL!!! Also he’s 50 and she’s 23. Like sweetie, you’re pretty, you don’t have to settle for this pic.twitter.com/s1eQfHWuMn
— Meech (@MediumSizeMeech) August 2, 2022
“Bride or Groomer?” – usher at Dane Cook’s wedding https://t.co/cMHdvL1YJO
— Gareth Reynolds (@reynoldsgareth) August 3, 2022
Do you think Dane Cook stole the idea to date a teenager from another comedian or do you think it was just parallel writing
— Jake Flores (@feraljokes) August 3, 2022
congrats to Dane Cook on what I assume was a very lengthy and rigorous adoption process
— Justin Kirkland (@justinkirkland4) August 3, 2022
The internet has come together once again to agree that Dane Cook's finance is too young for him
— Jeff Cerulli (@JeffCerulli) August 2, 2022
Dane Cook and his fiancee are registered at Build-A-Bear.
— Christian Finnegan (@ChristFinnegan) August 2, 2022