Millennials Are Feeling Old After Lindsay Lohan’s 2008 Relationship With Samantha Ronson Went Viral Because Gen Z Had No Idea About It

It all started when Danny DeVito shouted out his estranged wife, Rhea Perlman, at the Emmys, with thousands taking to X — formerly known as Twitter — after the show to express their shock at this relationship. 

In case you didn’t know, Danny and Rhea played Harry and Zinnia Wormwood in the 1996 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, which Danny also directed. 

The two met all the way back in 1971 and got married in 1982. By the time Matilda came around, Danny and Rhea shared three children together: Lucy, Grace, and Jacob. 

And during filming, they also took care of their 8-year-old costar, Mara Wilson, whose mom was battling cancer at the time. 

Although all of this information was basically lore for people born pre-2000s, it proved to be revolutionary to younger pop culture lovers — which left millennials and Gen X'ers feeling pretty old. 

And recent history has repeated itself just weeks later, with another former celebrity couple going viral on X as Gen Z struggled to wrap their heads around the relationship. 

Sharing photos of Lindsay and Samantha to social media last week, somebody wrote, “just found out lindsay lohan dated a butch in 2008/2009 this is life changing information,” and the tweet immediately gained traction.

It has since been seen almost 6 million times and racked up thousands of retweets, likes, and saves — but most actual responses have come from shocked millennials who can’t quite believe that the OP had only just learned this.

Quote-tweeting, one person wrote, “Imagine finding this out just now and not living through it, I’m like old.” Another echoed, “I actually feel so old sharing the Internet with kids.”

One more joked, “we’re losing recipes the kids don’t know about samantha ronson,” while somebody else playfully asked, “What do they teach y’all at school these days?”

Another user concluded, “now I know how my parents felt when I would go up to them like ‘hey have you heard of this band the Beatles? or Rolling Stones?’”

And the OP wasn’t here for the public lashings, replying to the post and explaining, “stop being annoying in my quote tweets  i’m nineteen i was like five when this relationship happened.”

The two women started out as friends, but things turned romantic in 2008.

Lindsay and Sam made several public appearances together, and while they never tried to hide their relationship, they also never directly confirmed that they were an item.

But Lindsay made the situation clear during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, where she said, “I think it's pretty obvious who I'm seeing. I think it's no shock to anyone that it's been going on for quite some time. … She's a wonderful person, and I love her very much."

The romance was always very on-again, off-again, and the couple ended up splitting for good in April 2009 — and it quickly became seriously messy. 

In fact, sources told People magazine that Sam had “changed the locks on her house” and “banned” Lindsay from attending her sister Charlotte Ronson’s fashion event after the breakup.

Although she refused to say what happened prior to the split, Lindsay did insist that it wasn’t the result of infidelity on either side. 

She also reflected on being in a same-sex relationship, saying that being attracted to a woman had caught her off guard. 

Speaking to the Sun, per Us Weekly, months after the separation, Lindsay explained, “I never really thought about women before; it kind of just happened with Samantha. It surprised me."

The actor went on to add, “She's the only woman I've been attracted to.” 

“I was bold enough to say, ‘Yeah, I like a girl. And?’” she recalled. “That put her in a situation where she was being attacked every day. That’s not fair. And what am I left with? Heartbreak.

“I needed to love myself first before I could be with anyone. And I was going through a lot. Two toxic people cannot be together. End of story,” Lindsay continued. “We’re friends now. That’s how it started, so I think that’s what’s meant to be.”

Lindsay welcomed her son, Luai, in July 2023, and she shares him with her financier husband, Bader Shammas.

Meanwhile, Samantha has been in a relationship with  beauty mogul Cassandra Grey since 2017.