Jerry Seinfeld, worth $950 million and the star of Seinfeld, has dated his fair share of women before settling down with his wife Jessica Seinfeld, who he married in 1999. However, there was one relationship that made everyone raise their eyebrows. It was with Shoshanna Lonstein, who was allegedly 17 when she met the comedian.
Not only was Lonstein supposedly underage when they met in 1993, the two had a large age difference of 21 years. Seinfeld was 38 years old then. As expected, there was public scrutiny of the relationship, with many, including Seinfeld’s industry contemporaries, side-eyeing him for this relationship.
Jerry Seinfeld And Shoshanna Lonstein’s High Age-Gap Relationship
People magazine reported that Jerry Seinfeld met Shoshanna Lonstein, then a 17-year-old and a senior at the private Nightingale-Bamford School, in New York City’s Central Park in May 1993. In a 1993 Playboy interview, he said that he didn’t know how old she was when they met. The actor said:
“I met this girl, Shoshanna. She’s a very sweet girl and she’s very pretty. I didn’t know how old she was — I knew she wasn’t 40. I took her to a basketball game and that was the whole thing.”
But everyone suspected that there was more going on and they confirmed their relationship when Lonstein became 18. But Seinfeld still had to be the butt of jokes due to the glaring age gap. During an interview with Howard Stern, the host asked Seinfeld, “So you sit in Central Park and have a candy bar on a string and pull it when the girls come?
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The comedian defended his actions by saying, “I didn’t realize she was so young. This is the only girl I ever went out with who was that young. I wasn’t dating her. We just went to a restaurant, and that was it.” During a People magazine interview, the actor said that the pair clicked because Lonstein was funny and sharp. Seinfeld said, “I am not an idiot. Shoshanna is a person, not an age. She is extremely bright. She’s funny, sharp, very alert. We just get along. You can hear the click.”
Even Lonstein’s family approved of the relationship. A source close to her family said, “Jerry is thoughtful, a good person. The family has nothing but positive feelings about both of them. Everyone respects their relationship.” It looks like everything was going well, so why did they break up?
Why Did Jerry Seinfeld And Shoshanna Lonstein Break Up After 4 Years Of Dating?
In 1997, news broke of Shoshanna Lonstein and Jerry Seinfeld’s breakup. New York Post reported that the breakup was platonic and there wasn’t any nasty scene. Insiders said, “They both just knew it was time for a break.” Lonstein, in an interview with Details magazine, said that she “wanted to run around and play” but Seinfeld’s heavy work schedule wasn’t allowing that.
Other alleged contributing reasons for the breakup were the public scrutiny and the distance between the two. Lonstein was enrolled at UCLA in New York while the TV star was in Los Angeles. She had said, “I’m happy I got to have the relationship, but L.A. was a really lonely existence for me.” But Lonstein didn’t fade away into the background after the breakup.
She took a loan from her father, the CEO of Infocrossing, and began a fashion label called Shoshanna in 1998. As per Celebrity Net Worth, she possesses $50 million. As for her relationship with the TV comedian, Lonstein stated in an interview with Observer that she had moved on long ago from that. Overall, it was a chapter in Seinfeld and Lonstein’s lives that both have put where it belongs- in the past.
Seinfeld is streaming on Netflix.
Source: People Magazine
