Grooming

The 30+ year difference in ages is one thing, but don’t forget that this former A+/A list mostly movie actor who is the star of one of the biggest urban legends of all time, has known his current wife since she was a tween.

Grooming.

Richard Gere

Alejandra Silva

Urban legend: Gerbil (see below)

Who Is Richard Gere’s Wife? All About Alejandra Silva

Richard Gere and Alejandra Silva turned heads in 2018 when they got married and announced plans to start a family despite their 33-year age difference.

A photo of the Dalai Lama blessing Silva’s baby bump served as their first pregnancy announcement. Just nine months after their son’s birth, they announced a second baby was on the way.

A source close to the couple told PEOPLE at the time that the two were “extraordinarily happy.”

Silva said she believed the universe was on her side regarding her relationship with the Pretty Woman star. The activist told Hola! in 2015 that Gere had been a family friend, and they had known each other for over a decade. Silva said they were immediately attracted to each other the moment they reconnected years later.

“Our karma was attracted the moment we saw each other,” she said. “I’m not ignoring our age difference and what it means to be with a Hollywood star, but when there’s such a strong karmic energy, the problems disappear.”

They were in a long distance relationship

Silva opened up about her long-distance relationship with Gere in 2015, revealing that the two would see each other when their kids were with their exes.

“It’s hard to coordinate, but we don’t go more than 20 days without seeing each other,” she told Hola! – Source

Richard Gere and the Gerbil

Although the legend homed in on various targets when it first appeared (including a Philadelphia newscaster), it has clung tenaciously to Mr. Gere’s name since at least the mid-1980s. Rumors that he had an emergency “gerbilectomy” at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California have spread far and wide, and countless doctors and nurses claim to have participated in, been on hand during, or heard from a reliable colleague about, the procedure. (Cedars-Sinai is apparently the best-staffed hospital in the world, since literally thousands of different doctors and nurses claim to have been on duty at the time Mr. Gere was allegedly brought in for treatment.)

The rumor’s spread was aided by an anonymous prankster who, not long after the film Pretty Woman led to a tremendous increase in Gere’s popularity, flooded fax machines in Hollywood with a phony “press release” purportedly issued by the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claiming that Gere had “abused” a gerbil. But, as a reporter from the National Enquirer found when he attempted to track down the gerbil story, there were no facts to be had.

The following is a true account:

A 26-year-old male arrives at the ER complaining of rectal bleeding. He is too embarrassed to provide an accurate history but provides the examing doctor a clue: “There might be something stuck in my rear end.” Examination reveals a non-tender abdomen, but a rectal exam shows blood coming from his anus. A speculum exam reveals bloody stool and a dead gerbil. Apparently, through the cardboard tubing from a paper towel roll, the rodent had been forced into his rectum. Once the animal was in, the tube was pulled out.

The idea is that as the gerbil suffocates, it scratches and claws at the lining of the rectum, providing an intense sensation to the patient. The rodent should then have been defecated, but the swelling and bleeding had caused the retention of the animal. The patient required pain medication and antibiotics after the animal was removed, but was then allowed to go home. – Source