Maria Riesch is badly in love: Ski-ace raves about new partner Johann

She no longer wants to keep this love to herself: Maria Riesch (40), who was divorced last January after 13 years of marriage by Marcus Höfl, is happily forgiven again. Johann Schrempf (65) has been the new man at her side for around half a year. In a double interview with the magazine “Bunte”, the two reveal why they can laugh warmly about their age and size difference and where the biggest challenge of their still fresh relationship is instead.

He is older for 25 years, for it around half a head larger. “It’s nice if you can look up at a woman,” jokes the Traveling Operation Manager Schrempf, who works on various cruise ships, before he adds more seriously: “A relationship at eye level has nothing to do with physical size or age.” The fact that others primarily had a problem with these say “more about the condition of our society than about us,” adds Riesch. Also with a wink, she adds to “not to wear so often high shoes”.

However, a similar humor is only one of the many aspects that the two appreciate. So they also share common passions such as sport, travel or mountains. Only the first skiing vacation together ended promptly in the hospital for the Austrian, because “I got a cruciate ligament tear”.

A couple have been Riesch and Schrempf for a few months, but previously they combined a friendship for years. Riesch gave fitness courses on one of Schrempf’s ships, and a common circle of friends also formed over the years. “I have always found Johann cool,” Riesch recalls these beginnings. “But we both were married and none of us thought about anything other than friendship.” It was only in the summer of last year “more developed”.

He has long been “the best companion for my new phase of life that I can imagine,” enthuses Riesch. He is empathetic and “a wonderful host”, can cook well and his top priority is “that I am fine”.

The fresh happiness of love clouds only one thing: Schrempf is often at home for months on all world’s oceans and she cannot always accompany it. “I find it particularly difficult when it is in completely different time zones, like New Zealand with ten hours of time difference. The window where we can make calls remains very small.” So the biggest challenge of her love is not the age, but the time difference.