Woman who married man 40 years older than her hits back at trolls

When it comes to love, it's often said that age is just a number.

This certainly seems to have been the case for 23-year-old Maria Eduardo Dias, who decided to marry a man 40 years her senior.

The pair began their relationship when Maria, a nursing student from Brazil, was just 16 and radio DJ Nixon Motta was 56.

While their age gap has raised more than a few eyebrows, the pair are happily married with a young child, Maria Alice, who was born last year.

Now, Maria has hit back at people who have trolled her and her husband for their 40-year age gap.

The nursing student explained that the trolling happened when she shared a video of the couple's wedding to TikTok and said she can't 'understand' the 'disrespect'.

She told Paraiba: "I even imagined it would go viral, but in a positive way. With people thinking: 'look what a beautiful love story…', but that's not what happened."

The pair said of their critics: "It's easy to judge when you don't know the story.

"We are very happy and accomplished, and built a beautiful and blessed family. Nobody has the right to disrespect us.

"Long live love! Love each other! Stop instilling hatred and evil for free people."

While Marie has since deleted the video of their wedding, which was viewed over 10 million times, another video of the couple also went viral.

It has been viewed over 125K times and shows the couple throughout various years of their relationship, going right back to when Maria was 16.

While some have argued that she is only with her husband for money, he has insisted that he is not rich.

He said: "I'm not rich. A lot of people are saying I probably am and [Ms Dias] wants financial stability. There was never any interest on her part."

As reported by the MailOnline, the comments on the now-deleted TikTok were far from complimentary.

"Sixteen years?" questioned one viewer. "These are the impacts of the pedophile normalisation in society. No, It's not normal for an almost old man to be with a 16-year-old girl."

"We don't have a term to normalise that," added a second while a third wrote: "This is so uncomfortable in so many ways."

The couple reportedly met online back in 2015 after Maria messaged the DJ for permission to use some pictures he had taken.

While they were apparently just friends at first and took part in activities like going to the cinema, Maria claims that she quickly realised she was 'in love' with Mixon and the rest, as they say, is history.