So What Is the Age Gap Between Daemon and Rhaenyra?

Age gap discourse feels insignificant when talking about Westeros, but it is still fascinating to learn things. I say insignificant because we have people marrying their brothers or having kids with their uncles, and that seems a more pressing matter than how old they are.

This series loves to bring incest into things or put really young kids in charge of entire kingdoms. That’s the rule of the land, but fans want to know how old Daemon and Rhaenyra were and what their age difference is. To be clear: Rhaenyra was about 18/19 when she first kissed Daemon.

When it comes to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), their relationship is … well, it’s a thing. Daemon is the brother of Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine). Rhaenyra is Viserys’ daughter, so that makes Daemon her uncle and husband. That’s pretty wild if you ask me! Still, the age difference between Daemon and Rhaenyra is … surprisingly not as bad as you’d think.

Daemon is the younger brother of Viserys but not by much. He is 4 years younger, but Viserys was only 20 years old when Rhaenyra was born, so it makes Daemon 16 years her senior. It isn’t a great age difference, but given the fact that Rhaenyra’s brother and sister married each other and had kids, it isn’t the most baffling thing about the Targaryen family.

That is just how Westeros works. Remember Jaime Lannister’s relationship with Cersei? If we can trust anything about the stories in both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, it is that there is going to be some incest happening to keep the bloodlines secure. In Daemon and Rhaenyra’s case, they just really liked each other, and that’s their family issues to sort out. (Just kidding, I do ship them.)

But the age difference between the two is 16 years. Daemon was 39 years old when he married Rhaenyra, and she was 23 years old at the time. And that’s the truth of the messiest family in all of Westeros.