On Thursday 16 February 2023, an anonymous source “close” to Titanic actor and renowned heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, told the Daily Mail that he’s currently single, looking for something “more mature,” and wants to “ditch” his current image. According to the tabloid, the 48-year-old had shared with the alleged source that he had enough of people suggesting that he is always seeking out very young women.

“He is looking for something more mature in the relationship department. It is just ridiculous because he cannot go anywhere without being linked to the youngest beautiful woman there. He wants to ditch this image once and for all and he is really bothered that this continues to follow him,” the anonymous tipper told the Daily Mail.

Whether or not these claims surrounding DiCaprio’s feelings about his infamous dating history and who he plans on being linked to next are true, this latest update in the constant whirlwind that is the actor’s love life has surprised more than one to say the least.

If you’re not sure what I’m getting at here and have somehow been living under a rock for all these years, let me catch you up. Rumour has it that the actor simply never dates women aged 27 or older—or at least that was the claim most netizens believed up until DiCaprio reportedly started dating 27-year-old model Gigi Hadid following his recent breakup with long-term girlfriend Camila Morrone just months after she turned 25.

DiCaprio’s potential redeeming through his association with Hadid was short-lived however, because he was soon spotted out and about with 19-year-old Eden Polani. For a number of years now, a graph that demonstrates the ages of the actor’s previous girlfriends has been circulating online.

Aside from Morrone, he dated Bar Refaeli until 2010, the year she turned 25. DiCaprio also briefly dated Kelly Rohrbach in 2015, the year she turned 25, and then Nina Agdal from 2016 until 2017—also the year she celebrated her 25th birthday. You get the gist.

All that being said, no one has been able to explain (even as a theory) exactly why we’ve been seeing this pattern in the 90s icon’s choice in partners. Well, up until now, that is…

https://twitter.com/SarahLerner/status/1564768561926586368

Introducing TikToker @Shani.Alexis (real name Shani Belshaw) who, since posting a video explaining her very own theory as to why DiCaprio can’t date anyone over 27, has gone viral on the app. According to the journalism student, “maybe Leonardo DiCaprio is kind of messed up in the head, especially when it comes to his sexual partners and who he’s attracted to” because of his past relationship as a teenager with actor and producer Brian Peck, who was convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16 in 2004.

According to the Daily Mail—yep, them again—and as mentioned in Belshaw’s video, Peck is a convicted child sex offender “who used his movie industry role to abuse a Nickelodeon star, and who astonishingly is not banned from working with children.”

In court documents obtained by the British tabloid, the victim is only named as John Doe to protect his identity. Peck had allegedly been coaching the victim in acting at his home when the offences happened and was only arrested after the budding actor’s parents reported him to police.

The documents show Peck was originally charged with 11 counts including: lewd act upon a child, sodomy of a person under 16, attempted sodomy of a person under 16, sexual penetration by foreign object, four counts of oral copulation of a person under 16, oral copulation by anaesthesia or controlled substance, sending harmful matter, and using a minor for sex acts.

Peck pleaded ‘no contest’ to two counts (lewd act against a child and oral copulation) and the court found him guilty of both. The remaining counts were dismissed. Peck is now reportedly back working in the movie industry.

Belshaw uses this information in her own theory about DiCaprio’s relationship with the producer, who he worked with on the American television sitcom Growing Pains in which the young actor joined the seventh and final season (from 1991 to 1992) to play a homeless teen named Luke Brower.

In some behind-the-scenes footage from the show which first made waves online back in 2014 when it was featured in An Open Secret, Amy J. Berg’s documentary film exposing child sexual abuse in the film industry in California, DiCaprio can be seen joking around with Peck as the latter describes him as “the latest, hottest, hunkiest teen idol there is.”

Though Belshaw doesn’t explicitly say it in the clip which has since gone viral on TikTok, she seems to suggest that DiCaprio’s current affinity for younger women might be a sign of him being a victim of child abuse at the hands of Peck. “This is opinion, not fact,” the content creator goes on to state in the video.

@shani.alexis

Could this be why stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Drake Bell have messed up attractions?#greenscreenvideo #greenscreen #leonardodicaprio #drakebell #amandabynes #disney #media

♬ original sound - Shani Hake (Belshaw)