SMASHED EXPECTATIONS

Rocker Reveals Why 26-Year Age Gap With Wife Was an ‘Advantage’

The singer has three children with his much younger other half.

Billy Corgan thinks the 26-year age gap in his marriage is a perk, not a problem.

The 59-year-old Smashing Pumpkins frontman explained why being from different generations has benefited his relationship with his wife, fashion designer Chloe Mendel, 33, during Thursday’s episode of The New York Times’ Popcast.

The couple met through a mutual friend and began dating in 2012. They married at their Highland Park, Illinois, home in September 2023.

They have three children: Augustus, born in 2015; Philomena, born in 2018; and Juno, born in March 2025.

When hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli asked whether their age difference had helped their relationship, Corgan initially hesitated.

“Well, that gets into… I don’t wanna make all the feminists mad,” he began.

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The rocker explained that some of his previous relationships with women from his generation were complicated by past trauma and painful experiences.

“I met a lot of broken women along the way,” Corgan said. “I mean, I was shocked at the stories that I would hear about what they’d been through.”

With Mendel, however, Corgan said their generational differences offered a fresh perspective.

“When I met my wife and had that gap, she just wasn’t affected by those same politics,” he explained. “She just had a different version.”

He suggested that Mendel’s upbringing in a different era of feminism gave her greater confidence and fewer emotional scars.

“And then her youth was an advantage because she hadn’t been wounded like so many people are,” Corgan said.

He added that Mendel was “really open to love and the possibility” and had chosen not to judge him for who he was.

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Tamilore OshikanluContributor

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