Billie Eilish’s older brother Finneas has defended the young singer’s relationship with Jessie Rutherford, stating he just wants her to be “happy and safe”.
Few celebrity relationships have experienced more criticism and scrutiny in recent years than the one between Billie Eilish and The Neighborhood’s Jessie Rutherford. The almost 11 year age gap between the 21-year-old pop star and 31-year-old frontman, combined with Rutherford being one of Eilish’s childhood crushes has left a decidedly bad taste in the mouths of many.
For some on social media, that bad taste has grown into outright vitriol, with a recent Tik Tok gaining the attention of Eilish’s brother and long-time collaborator Finneas.
The since-deleted Tik Tok was a stitch of Finneas in which the creator stated “Oh yeah? Well, your sister’s dating a 31-year-old man and your music is shitty.” — I’m not sure if that non-sequitur at the end was really necessary, but anyway.
Finneas in-turn commented on the video, writing “I want my sister to be happy and safe and she is a 21 year old adult perfectly entitled to make her own life decisions.”
The songwriter and musician expressed a similar sentiment last month, telling E! News “Listen, as long as she’s happy, I’m happy.”
Billie Eilish herself has only publicly spoken about the relationship recently, in her sixth annual interview with Vanity Fair. In the interview (embedded in-full below) the singer states “I managed to get my life to a point where I not only was known by a person that I thought was the hottest fucking fucker alive, but pulled his ass! Are you kidding me? Can we just— round of applause for me … thank you, Jesse Rutherford, everyone! I pulled his ass. All me. I did that shit.”
A little gross? I’ll let you decide that for yourself. But whatever you think of the relationship let’s not start attacking Billie’s family for it, shall we?
