He was 44 and she was 19 when they met

There's a huge difference between more than eleven months and 25 years. She was 19 and he was 44 when they met.

i just see this as people not liking that women have a choice of dating someone older than them

I think for a long term committed relationship, if one person is decades older than the other, the older one must not care much about the quality of life of the younger.

Might be all fun and games in the moment, but you are on a trajectory to probably inflict elder care on that partner down the road. Being tied down to a tired old person instead of someone that can keep up with them.

Maybe if the older person is rich enough to ensure others provide the care and the relationship is open, or if the relationship is mutually agreed to be a short term one before the age related deterioration is likely to really set in. But generally I don't think this is the case.

I agree, it's gotten annoying. I dated someone who was 19/20?(I don't remember her age then) when I was 26. My ex before was two weeks younger than me. One person had their shit together and the other sat on my shoulders. So maturity levels vary. One I got promoted to a supervisor and the other couldn't even pass the stupid mmpi test so we could work together.