David Foster defends 35-year age gap with fifth wife Katharine McPhee

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David Foster, 70, has defended the three decade age gap between him and his fifth wife, Katharine McPhee, 36.

Foster, who was previously married to Yolanda Hadid and stepfather to Gigi Hadid and her siblings Bella and Anwar, married his most recent wife in June 2019.

The 16-time Grammy Award winning music producer and songwriter told USA Today of his relationship with the former American Idol singer.

The Canadian said: “ Look, we have haters on social media and there’s not a person around that’s not going to make some comment about the age difference.

“But there are so many things that can bring a marriage down: It can be financial, it can be children, it can be geography, it can be infidelity. And one of them is age difference, but that’s our only problem.”

He added: “Everything else is in line, so it’s not going to bring us down,” and said that the pair had “a musical connection”.

Foster has five biological daughters from his previous marriages – his oldest is 50, 14 years older than his wife. He says the family has known Katharine for 15 years.

“I’ve known her for 15 years and they’ve known her that long as well. It was a comfortable transition, and it’s a credit to both my wife and daughters that they’ve just rolled with it and they do great together,” he says.

“It’s been years now with no animosity and no problems, and I have no reason to believe that’ll change at all.”

The couple recently celebrated their one-year anniversary in lockdown. Foster explained: “I did manage to buy her a present and a card, and I booked the fire pit at the condo complex we live in. It ended up being too cold outside, so we ate inside. But it was a nice day.”

A new Netflix documentary about Foster’s life will air this week: it looks at his illustrious career producing records such as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, Barbara Streisand’s “Somewhere” and Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me”.

Foster’s career began as a keyboardist in a band called “Skylark” in 1971. His estimated net worth is now in the region of $80-90m (£70m).