I'm a 70-year-old grandmother who uses dating apps every day after leaving my husband of 34 years - I'm feeling years younger (and having the best sex of my life!)
A grandmother who is using dating apps at the age of 70 said she looks and feels decades younger - and is having the best sex of her life.
Tina Pemberton, a grandmother-of-three from London, said she's living like a teenager again.
She has been swiping right, dating and even spicing up her sex life after leaving her husband of 34 years.
She feels her later-in-life sexual awakening has even made her look and feel 'ageless'.
'I'm living life as a teenager,' Tina said. 'I embrace every new thing and I don't feel old at all.
'I feel ageless and I actually think I've become a happier person and I look better than I did 20 years ago.'
Tina said the biggest surprise has been rediscovering her sex life, and just how satisfying it can still be.
'They say as you get older you dry up a bit but I met someone who knew exactly what to do.
The grandmother-of-three said she is having the best sex of her life after leaving her husband of 34 years and moving on to a new chapter
'He used lubricants and everything to make me feel good. It worked and I could not believe it.
'I was on cloud nine. I hop-skipped, danced, jumped everywhere - it really does work.'
Tina, who once ran a restaurant in Norfolk before retiring, said every woman deserves to feel good regardless of their age.
'You see women on the train and they look miserable and you think - I know what they need,' she said. Every woman needs that at some point.'
The grandmother is now on a mission to break the taboo around older women and intimacy.
Her openness about sex led to her becoming one of Lovehoney's first 'Queen Bees' - a senior sex advisor on a brand's new expert panel aimed at breaking the stigma around sex and ageing.
Now, she is using that platform to encourage other women to embrace their desires without shame.
She feels society is far too quick to dismiss older women, especially when it comes to love, sex and dating.
Tina (pictured here when she was younger) once ran a restaurant in Norfolk before she decided to retire
'I just find it very silly,' she continued.
'People see your age on a dating app and don't even consider going out with you.
'Why do they think that a human being should change their feelings?
'Forget about the wrinkles and think about the twinkles.'
After 34 years of marriage, Tina realised something was missing and made the brave decision to start anew eight years ago.
'I left my husband and I came to London from the countryside,' she said.
'There was a big age gap - he was 18 years older - and it suddenly didn't work.
'I was full of energy, wanting to do things, and living in the country didn't do it for me.
'I really wanted to be active again rather than living my life as a pensioner.'
Tina ended her marriage, left her quiet life in Norfolk and moved to London to live with her 31-year-old son Josh.
She was enjoying nights at the theatre and going out with friends when someone suggested she try online dating.
'I started getting matches and going out on dates,' she said. 'I had never been on dating apps in my life.'
But it wasn't long before she found herself with a busy social life and plenty of stories to tell.
Tina said she's dated men older, younger and her own age - but not all of them have impressed her.
She said: 'It's been interesting to see how men my age are still playing games.
'I hadn't dated since my 20s and I was quite shocked.
Tina regularly posts about her journey online - she wants to break down the taboo of older women and sexual intimacy
'They don't mature; they just still expect the same things.
'One guy met me and immediately grabbed hold of my hand. I didn't even know him.'
Some of Tina's other dates have been memorable for all the wrong reasons.
'There was one I spoke to a long time on the phone before I met him for a coffee,' Tina remembered.
'When I saw him sitting waiting for me, I just knew it was wrong - I didn't even want to go there.
'I had nothing to say to him and I'm a very chatty person. It was really embarrassing.'
Tina said there was one man who even brought up his digestion problems over dinner.
She recalled: 'We were having dinner and he started talking about his bowel movements. I don't really want to know.
'Constipation and this, that or the other - it really put me off my food.'
Tina has now been on dozens of dates but says the most meaningful connections have happened off the apps.
She said: 'Funnily enough, the people I've actually had something to do with have not been through dating apps but through people who introduced us.
'A couple led to things and we went out once or twice. It's strange but exciting.'
Tina decided to sign up to TikTok to talk about her best and worst dates and to encourage other older women to start dating again.
Some dates fizzled out and others ghosted her but Tina said she has learned not to take it personally.
She said: 'That's when I started recording my stuff on TikTok last year, talking about bad dates and funny ones.
'I get ghosted. They can talk to me for a week and then disappear.
'It can be offensive but I've grown to understand it and I do the same now.'
Tina is open to meeting someone special, just not on anyone else's timeline.
'Maybe I don't want someone full-time or to get married again, but I would like to find a new lover - I'm not giving up on that. I know when it's right, it's right.'
The 70-year-old hopes that by being open about her experiences, she can help other women feel empowered too.
'Younger women are very inspired. They say, 'I want to be like you at your age.'
'My advice would be to not listen to anyone who tells you that you shouldn't go out and date, have a good time and have a sexual [relationship].
'I'm trying to break the taboo of older women enjoying sex and having a love life. It's very healthy - it's very good for endorphins, good for everything.'
Tina said she's not slowing down any time soon. She added: 'I would never have thought this would happen to me, and that's why it's so surprising.
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