'Suddenly, I noticed something.' Please behold the *other* Leonardo DiCaprio dating theory.

It's precisely always funny to joke about the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio, 48, seemingly refuses to date anyone over the age of 25. 

Of course, there's now an exception to that rule – 27-year-old Gigi Hadid, who is reportedly "getting to know" the actor.

They're apparently keeping their relationship 'low-key', in that we only know they have anything to do with each other from paparazzi photos where they're almost entirely covering their faces. Leo, in particular, wears a cap and mask, to the point where he could reasonably argue that the figure emerging from a swanky New York restaurant isn't him at all. 

Some (me) have theorised that this is because he's so profoundly ashamed that he's dating a yucky, old lady like supermodel Gigi, and he doesn't want anyone to know. It's embarrassing, you see, because she's so heinously elderly. What with her late 20s collagen and joints and boundless energy. 

But after looking closely at Leo's dating history, I have another theory about what's become known as 'Leo's Law' – the tendency for Leo to age at a rate of approximately one year per year, while the women he dates... do not. 

Indeed, as the actor approaches 50, he has failed, for the last two decades, to date anyone over the age of 25 for any substantial length of time. 

New Leonardo-DiCaprio-refuses-to-date-a-woman-over-25 chart just droppedhttps://t.co/VPiCZjq7MW pic.twitter.com/Ym0pTc4D5O

— Alex Selby-Boothroyd (@AlexSelbyB) August 31, 2022

When his relationship with model Camila Morrone ended earlier this year, just months after she turned 25, the internet immediately turned away from their responsibilities (e.g. child rearing, paid employment, volunteering at the local shelter) and focused on the urgent task at hand: Making. Memes.

“will you still love me when i’m no longer young and beautiful?”

leonardo dicaprio: pic.twitter.com/JdXHLMnpCm

— taylor (not swift) (@lillactk) August 30, 2022

Leonardo Dicaprio when his girlfriends reach 25 years of age pic.twitter.com/4KOiUbIb5U

— GbrandJolie-Lannister (@DayaJolieMartz) August 30, 2022

Leonardo DiCaprio has requested all his movies be taken down from Netflix since it turned 25. https://t.co/SFAJtwyEV6

— Parvinder (@pavvysingh) August 31, 2022

Leonardo DiCaprio on his next date like pic.twitter.com/p30mkofEaP

— Sadie Sink's Oscar (@Jaqssssss) August 30, 2022

But what no one seems to have entertained is the possibility that it's not Leo who's ending these relationships. It's the women. 

Why, you ask, would women consistently break up with Leonardo DiCaprio, a man who may have his flaws but makes consistently excellent creative choices, as soon as they turn 25? 

Let me share a few stories.

In 1997, Leonardo DiCaprio starred alongside Kate Winslet in Titanic. At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made, and was the role that launched Leo into a new stratosphere of fame. 

The man also, reportedly, couldn't stop farting.

Leo was wearing a coat for most of the shoot, and director James Cameron told Rolling Stone, "He would, like, fart in it and then sweep the coat over [Kate's] face."

'It's funny because it's a fart.'

Mate, pls. It's a professional work environment. Control your bowels. 

Co-star Billy Zane reiterated Leo's fart-iness, explaining in the same interview: "Grossing Kate out was purely Leo’s job. He got really good at it. If he wasn’t rolling back his eyelids, he was making objets d’art out of bodily fluids."

Okay. So here we have a man who, as a 21-year-old actor in a career-defining role, finds farting very, very funny. 

That's fine, I'll allow it. 

It's just. Maybe there's a certain age at which a woman doesn't want to be engulfed by a fart. Perhaps. 

The previous year, Leo had starred in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet with a then 17-year-old Claire Danes. It's long been rumoured that there was a 'feud' between the two, with Danes finding her co-star "a little immature," and Leo describing Danes as "uptight". 

Could it be that he tried to greet her via fart, and she didn't... want it?

'Seriously it's a risk to my safety and wellbeing.' 

'Pretty sure Shakespeare described Romeo as a farty boy.'

But Leo was a young man in the 90s. It's unfair to assume he's continued to love farts into his 30s and 40s, and that his fart-iness has been a factor in his inability to date a woman over the age of 25. 

Well. 

During an Entertainment Weekly panel to promote Don't Look Up in 2022, it became clear that Leo still finds farts really, extremely funny. 

In the video, Jennifer Lawrence is answering a question when there's a sudden, unmistakable, fart sound. The cast looks straight at Leo. 

"I knew this was going to happen," he says, beaming. 

"Jonah's got a fart machine," Leo tells the interviewer, referring to his cast mate, Jonah Hill. The rest of the cast start talking about how they were unsure about whether to continue with the question, but no, stop. It's Leo. 

He can't stop laughing. 

Sir.

You're really enjoying this.

And honestly, same.

To his right, Meryl Streep looks at him with an expression that can only be described as bewilderment. This is a woman who is often described as "the best actress of her generation," with a career spanning five decades, three Academy Awards and eight Golden Globes. And the man beside her cannot contain himself because, sorry lady, but did you hear the fart machine?? It makes fart sounds? It's funny because a fart comes out of your bottom.

Leo's love of pranks, however, is not contained to those relating to farts. 

In 2016, Jonah Hill (fart machine owner) was standing on a street in Manhattan. Leo happened to spot him, and really, there's only one thing to do when we unexpectedly see a friend in public. 

We run up to them aggressively pretending to be a member of the paparazzi. 

Unsurprisingly, the paparazzi captured the entire encounter.

"It was hysterical," Hill said in an interview. 

"I literally wasn’t planning on meeting up with anybody. I just left work and was going to get a coffee and was just, like, probably on Instagram [on my phone] or e-mail. But he ran up on me and scared the s**t out of me and it was very funny. My heart literally stopped. Because it was really aggressive."

So. Leo. Likes. Pranks. 

You know who doesn't particularly like pranks? Grown women with jobs and/or responsibilities and/or a lack of patience for their romantic partner who won't stop farting. 

Leo also likes his group of male friends, who have somewhat of a checkered history. In the 90s, the group – including Leo's best friend of 30 years, Tobey Maguire, as well as actor Kevin Connelly and magician David Blaine, to name a few – were labelled the 'Pussy Posse'. Their hobbies reportedly included letting off stink bombs in nightclubs, getting into fights, and throwing grapes at paparazzi. 

Maguire remains Leo's very best friend, and look. I just have a gut feeling that all Leo wants to do is hang out with his friend Tobey and laugh at each other's farts. That's all. And that is a noble and enjoyable life. It's just not one that many women over the age of 25 would like to be a part of. 

Listen to our Cancelled episode about Leonardo DiCaprio. Post continues after audio.

 It's well-known that the human brain doesn't reach full maturity until 25. But what is maturity?

Some (like the Cambridge Dictionary) would define it as: "the state of being mentally and emotionally well-developed, and therefore responsible."

I would go further and define maturity as: developing a taste for which fart jokes and pranks are funny. Will you still have a giggle at a fart machine at 30? Sure. But do you want... more? Yes, probably.

Let me spell out my theory, loud and clear:

It's not that Leo breaks up with his girlfriends when they turn 25, as some sort of sick, objectifying strategy to eternally feel young. 

It's that women break up with Leonardo DiCaprio at 25 because their frontal lobe has developed to the point where they have aged out of his sense of humour and hobbies. 

That average age is 25. Images via Getty.

He keeps farting.

They stop laughing.

He releases a stink bomb.

His partner asks him, politely, to... not. 

He sets up an elaborate practical joke, putting glad wrap over the toilet or creeping up on them in public, and by that stage, the woman he's with has had enough. 

'I'm done,' she says. 'Yes, The Beach is an excellent film. As was Shutter Island and Inception. The Aviator wasn't my favourite, but it's fine because you came back with Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby, The Wolf of Wall Street, I could go on. But you need to be free to laugh at farts all you like. I have things to do.'

And before we know it, another relationship has ended. And Leo is on the prowl. Searching, endlessly, for a person he can engulf in his fart. He hopes they will laugh, just as Kate Winslet did, because farting in a jacket is always funny, surely? 

But Kate was 20 when Titanic was filmed. It's unclear whether the Oscar-winning mother-of-three would still find a man's fart hilarious. Perhaps she would. 

Whether she'd choose to stay with that farty man for the long haul, however, is an entirely different question. 

For more from Clare Stephens, including her unconventional celebrity theories, you can follow her on Instagram and TikTok. 

You can also listen to CANCELLED, about celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, King Charles, Mariah Carey and more on Apple or Spotify. 

Image: Getty + Mamamia.