It’s been a good year for the Always Be My Maybe actor, Keanu Reeves.

Despite the fact that he has virtually no social media presence, he has also become the ultimate meme fodder, been hailed “the respectful king” for keeping his distance from women while posing for pictures, and lovingly dubbed the avatar for all things average.

He also took the time to visit a fan who created a sign that read, “You’re breathtaking!” –  a reference to Reeves’ appearance at the E3 gaming conference in June.

You can see that ‘breathtaking’ moment here.

His latest good news? America’s sweetheart is off the market, but that’s not what has Hollywood in a fluster.

They’re calling him a hero, singing his praises on social media, and sharing pictures far and wide of him and his girlfriend, artist Alexandra Grant.

Why? Because she’s close to his age and not afraid to show it, reports The Independent.

Grant is 46 and unabashedly looks it, her naturally greying hair left undyed. She is in appearance an adult woman: a sight still, sadly, very rarely seen on a red carpet in Los Angeles.

And even though, at 55, Reeves is still almost a decade her senior, we are positively faint with praise for the actor because finally, mercifully, we see a famous man dating a woman who is (almost) his own age.

On ageing in our society, Oprah Winfrey once said: “We live in a youth-obsessed culture that is constantly trying to tell us that if we are not young, and we’re not glowing, and we’re not hot, that we don’t matter.”

Women over a certain age are repeatedly told by movies, music, dating apps, employers, clothing companies and advertisements that they don’t matter to the opposite sex – in fact, they might not exist at all.

It’s therefore understandable that people are relieved to see a real woman in her forties out and about in Hollywood.

As for Keanu, I’m happy for him, but he doesn’t deserve undying love for dating someone close to his age.