61-year old woman dates men half her age to look younger.

Laila Gledhill could easily pass for a woman in her thirties - and the lady from Yorkshire claims to have dated over thirty strapping young men in her life.She has been married to a 22-year-old army officer, engaged to a 27-year-old for four years and has a casual ongoing fling with a university student.In fact, the stunning administrative officer says dating and sleeping with toyboys is the secret to her youth.

"Dating toyboys has kept me looking young and given me a zest for life.

"I feel like my appearance has stood still in time because of the way younger men treat me.

"From my experience, younger men treat older women with respect, find them infinitely more attractive and genuinely enjoy their company.

"And the sex is so much better.

"Older men often have baggage and a bigger belly. Why should I be with a sixty-year-old man when I can be one who is twenty-four?

Laila, who turns 62 next year, says: "A group of twenty-something women became jealous of me when their boyfriends remarked that I was attractive.

"The girls made some nasty comments regarding my body, saying that it must be wrinkly under my clothes.

"So to show them, I took some racy photos of me in my swimwear and posted them to Facebook!"

While her contemporaries collect their free bus passes, Laila can be found in nightclubs being approached by young professionals or holidaying with mates who are decades younger.

Laila claims to have dated over thirty toyboys in her life.

She meets most of them through online dating website  or when she is on a night out.

And 61-year-old Laila Gledhill, isn't even a little bit ashamed about her passion for toyboys.

Not one bit.Laila from Hull, Yorkshire says: "No man over 40 has ever approached me.

In fact, Laila - with her youthful looks and vivacious lifestyle - has found herself to be the object of envy of certain younger women.

She says, "Older women have everything they need in life. They have great jobs and great friends. We don't have to settle anymore."We can pick and choose the men that we want to date. In my mother's generation for example, it was a different situation."My mother had to rely on my father for everything and she didn't have the freedom in middle-age that I have now."If a woman wants to date toyboys, they should. There's no problem with it."Can you imagine how different I would look now if I was with an older man?"
Laila wasn't always a cougar.

Her adult life started largely conventionally when she married her childhood sweetheart, Marcus, when she was twenty-seven-years old.

"We met when I was seventeen and we married each other a decade later."Although even Marcus was two years younger than me - I like to consider him my first toyboy."

But after fourteen years together, Marcus declared that he was leaving Laila for a younger woman.

"He was my first love. We had known each other since we were teenagers.But now Marcus was telling me he wanted to leave me for a woman in her early thirties who was thinner, taller and prettier than me. I kicked him out.

Marcus walking out on me made me really think about what I deserved in life and from men.

And a few weeks later, the now 41-year-old divorcee met a handsome 21-year-old army officer called David. Laila adds:

"It was so funny because a few months after walking out, Marcus called and begged me to take him back.I responded with 'Sorry Marcus but I've met someone who's younger than you and fitter than you'."

David fell head-over-heels in love with Laila and popped the question after a year of dating. When he was posted to Germany, they moved together. The pair were happily married for five years but David's parents disliked the fact that Laila was much older than him.

"His family were unhappy about the age gap between David and me. That finally came between us and we split up."

#ukmirror