When he's actually legal they'd still be within the "socially acceptable" age gap range? I think it was something like being in the same zodiac cycle that was the cut off point before people would really start to pull the shit talking behind your back about being a cradle robber and what not. So, basically a difference of up to 12 years is less likely to get as much flak as one of 13 or more. Still probably catch shit for it 'cause the older one here is a woman, though.
Please don't ping me about 13 being the age of consent in Japan, I'm kind of tired of explaining why that's not actually strictly true. It's all the fault of random websites spreading that around to this day without actually doing the legwork anyone could do with Google already to see the rest of the story, so do that. Practice your Google-fu, young padawan.