The MKR contestants assumed Cheryl and Matt were mother and son.

We’ve already got two favourites on My Kitchen Rules: Cheryl, 50, and her boyfriend Matt, 26.

The Queensland couple have been together for 18 months, but because of their 24-year age gap, other contestants on the show assumed they were mother and son.

Cheryl soon set them straight on the show last night: “I’m 50, Matt’s 26, let’s just get that out of the way. Maybe I’m a cougar, but that’s alright.”

It sure is alright, Cheryl. You do you, girl. You know, unless Matt is.

See, these two really like to talk about their sex life.

“She says to me that she’s 18 with 32 years experience,” Matt told NW recently.

Of course, the show’s producers must be lapping this stuff up. They’ve already tried to emphasise the age gap with promos featuring Cheryl reclining on a lounger as Matt acts as her willing pool-boy.

Cheryl says she was the one who picked Matt up.

“I was actually out with my girlfriend who was having a divorce party and we were dancing up a storm,” Cheryl told news.com.au.

“And my girlfriend took a shine to Matt’s friend. She was talking to him and I saw Matt standing at the bar all lit up like a Christmas tree in his pink shirt and green jeans — he kind of stood out. We just started talking about everything.”

Green jeans and a pink shirt? Hmmm. Well, despite his get up — or because of it, as the case may be — the couple hit it off that night, and now they live together.

Matt “cooks naked” for Cheryl, which is an OH&S issue for Channel Seven, I guess.

“When we get home, off come the clothes,” Cheryl told news.com.au. I wonder how Matt’s mum feels about that?

Pacific Magazines launch New Idea TV supplement TV Extra and announce #MKR dealhttps://t.co/qxlVZShO53 pic.twitter.com/046UNNYUn5

— Mediaweek (@MediaweekAUS) February 1, 2016

The word cougar is painful to my ears, implying as it does some kind of predatory behaviour on the part of an older woman — some kind of desperation.

However, Cheryl isn’t afraid to throw the term around. “I am a cougar and proud of it,” she said on MKR last night.

“As long as you’re happy with it,” said Melbourne lawyer Zana to Cheryl over the dinner table.

“I’ve never been so happy,” replied Cheryl.

Check mate, Zana! Ain’t nothing desperate about this woman.

We wish Cheryl and Matt many more years of love and happiness, and many more romantic dinners together.