Women over 50 'too old' to love, French author Yann Moix says Published duration 7 January 2019

image copyright Getty Images image caption Yann Moix is well-known in France, where he also presents and directs

A French writer is being criticised after saying he would be "incapable" of loving a woman aged 50 or above... despite being 50 himself.

Yann Moix told Marie Claire magazine he found women of that age "too old".

"I prefer younger women's bodies, that's all. End of. The body of a 25-year-old woman is extraordinary. The body of a woman of 50 is not extraordinary at all," he said.

The comments have sparked an angry backlash on social media.

Marina Foïs, a French comedian, joked in a tweet that because she is about to turn 49 she only has "one year and 14 days" left to sleep with the author.

One twitter user mocked him, saying women over 50 were likely "breathing a sigh of relief" at his comments.

Another jokily asked: "Can women under 50 be invisible to you as well please?"

Elsewhere, some women over 50 posted images showing off their body confidence in protest.

Journalist Colombe Schneck posted a photograph of her bottom with the caption: "Voila, the buttocks of a woman aged 52…what an imbecile you are, you don't know what you're missing..." She said Instagram later removed her post.

Others shared images of Hollywood celebrities close to the age of 50, such as Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston, to disprove his comments.

image copyright Getty Images

"I hope that one day he knows this happiness," she added.

Moix is a presenter, director and an award-winning writer who is known for courting controversy with his comments.

His Marie Claire interview also drew criticism for statements he made regarding his preference for dating Asian women - which he specified as "Koreans, Chinese and Japanese" in particular.

"It's perhaps sad and reductive for the women I go out with but the Asian type is sufficiently rich, large and infinite for me not to be ashamed," he told the magazine.

"I like who I like and I don't have to answer to the court of taste," he said, before joking he probably was not the best catch either.

"50-year-old women do not see me either!" he told the station. "They have something else to do than to get around a neurotic who writes and reads all day long. It's not easy to be with me."