A 5-foot-10 woman who towers over her short husband has shared how trolls say he looks like her son, but they couldn’t be more in love.
Cassandra Gaspard, 29, and her partner, Westin, 32, are constantly stared at due to their height difference.
Cassandra is five inches taller than Westin — who is 5 feet 5 inches tall — and is asked why she is with her husband by strangers.
But the couple couldn’t be happier after tying the knot in April and have never seen their height difference as a problem.
“In real life people don’t come up to me. They come up to my wife," said Westin, a technical account manager from New York City.
“They said, 'How can you be with him? He’s so short.'
“People stare at us — it happens a lot.
“Trolls say I look like her handbag or I’m her son. They are trying to be funny.”
Cassandra, who works in customer care, doesn't understand why strangers feel the need to judge their relationship.
“It’s a little odd that people look at [our] height difference and think we don’t deserve to be in a relationship," she said.
She noted "it's not the norm" in society but "you love who you love."
Cassandra had embraced her height by the time she met Westin on Tinder in 2017 — and even wore five-inch heels on their first date.
"I grew up taller than everybody. I was the oddball out," she said.
“I accepted in my 20s that I couldn’t change. Now I’m mostly in heels.”
Westin had never had any issues with his height or dating girls taller than him.
“My height is what it is. I can’t stretch myself," he said.
“I always carried myself in a confident way.
“When I met my wife I said, 'You’re tall and there is nothing you can do about it. And I’m small and there is nothing I can do about it.'
“We never cared about it.
“It’s a blessing. If something is up on a shelf and I can’t get it. Guess who I’m calling? My wife.”
Despite their confidence, the couple did have to adjust to the constant stares and comments.
I’m a boxer — I can protect my wife. It doesn’t have anything to do with my height.
Westin Gaspard
“I remember the very first time someone said something," Cassandra recalled.
“These two or three older men were looking at us.
“They said, 'She’s really tall, he’s really short — I can’t believe it’.”
Westin said he also gets comments asking if he has "short man syndrome."
“Someone said, 'I hope he doesn’t have a temper,'" he explained.
“Short men get a bad rep and they think I have short man syndrome.
“People could be missing out on a life partner because of all these preconceived notions.
“It’s silly stuff like women can’t be with a man shorter than her. They want someone to look up to and protect them.
“I’m a boxer — I can protect my wife. It doesn’t have anything to do with my height.”
Cassandra noted there are other "tall women married to short men."
“It’s not like OMG, I just found a rare coin," she said.
“Love is love no matter what," Westin added.