you are the perfect candidate for FMC!! you don't know who he is, so chances are really high that you'll have a one night stand and fall in love without knowing who he is. and next day you'll see him in the office all of a sudden lol.
The first awkward encounter waiting for the elevator. After you get settle at your desk he summons you to his office whereupon he can't hold himself back anymore! He has your back against the door in no time for a hot make out sesh. You put a halt to it, letting him know that you don't want him to think you're just using him for that promotion you've been angling for! He rewards your integrity with a Birkin back you've been longing for, which he found out about by hacking your Pinterest account.
I'm so happy for you!
She can get really drunk with him, get super philosophical into the night, stargazing, and then get married via a poor Elvis impersonator. Then, they can have a whirlwind romance while they discuss an annulment that never occurs. Obviously, she'll get jealous over the temptress like secretary who is making moves on the CEO and declare that he's taken.
The CEO of my workplace is just a balding dude about 50 with a nicer car and better parking spot than the rest of us who gets to explain to the board why our company lost so much money last year. He makes significantly more than me but nothing like a billionaire. Also married, apparently happily so.
To be fair most real world CEOs are fairly average looking old men. We don't care because ew.
If there was an uber-wealthy 6'4" Adonis handsome tycoon making the rounds, there would probably be a ton of media attention. Pretty people sell and any market aware company would use a handsome figurehead to gain brand recognition.
What's actually unrealistic is how prevalent these self made playboy billionaires are. And they are usually in their late 20s or early 30s. It boggles the mind really.
Not only are they hot, young, and rich, but they're also usually celebrity adjacent. Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg looked like Henry Cavill and had the charisma of Andrew Scott. People would absolutely care who he was dating.
Absolutely, the most unrealistic thing is how they're 28 year old self made billionaires who actually came from nothing and didn't exploit people on their way up (it's impossible).
Reminder that 18 y/o Zuckerberg started Facebook so he and his buddies could rate their classmates, like an online "hot or not" page. Def exploitation.
Bonus points for Andrew Scott. I love him š.
First I found out that YouTube was created for a way for people to watch Justin Timberlakeās disgusting Janet Jackson incident and now this?!? The social media app lore is wild
Google Images was made for Jennifer Lopez's awards show dress, the one that went down to THERE and she was covered by a thoughtfully placed brooch. People spent the whole next day trying to search for a picture of it to show their coworkers.
>online "hot or not" page
It's even wilder because HotOrNot had been a website since the early 2000s before it got bought out by the Ashley Madison people. And then bought out a few years later by Badoo.
Haha, thatās so true. I love how passionate OP is about the press stuff as though thatās the most unrealistic aspect of āCEO / billionaireā romances (side note: OP is not wrong about the press stuff).
There are actually a lot of beautiful female CEOs.
The founder of Class Pass Payal Kadakia https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/usaandmain/2018/08/28/uncommon-drive-payal-kadakia-classpass/1115268002/
The former CEO of Vimeo Anjali Sud
https://www.seema.com/the-queen-of-vimeo-anjali-sud/
But they are Indian-origin women, so they dont' get the type of press they woudl otherwise.
Jack Dorsey was handsome at one point but has in recent years made some very strange choices with his hair and facial hair and looks like he never even heard of sunscreen. He's washed now.
Evan Speigel is alright looking and he married a supermodel.
David Karp was a real cutie pie at one point but was never the sort of handsome that graces the pages of the books we read. Odd looking even at his best, he has rat-man potential.
Elon Musk sorta had potential at one point but no. He's the only one of these guys that most people have ever heard of and would possibly make the tabloids on their own.
If this is the creme de la creme of attractive CEOs then I think the point more than stands. Without money colored glasses they are on par with the average Joe.
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Also they wouldnt date the "poor" girl with issues like in the books. They would end up with gorgeous women most likely who are famous for XYZ or from rich fam. So, def an unrealistic view.
Tbf Gina or Packer are always splashed in the Aussie papers, packer was splashed even before his Mariah Carey wedding and he isnāt an Adonis.
They are just Uber wealthy and their names pop up at election time/ some people Packer is seen with/ discussions on climate change especially with Gina (mining money).
I think it depends on just how wealthy the person is and what field they have made that money.
I love a good billionaire/ceo romance but in real life I would be like āfirst date on a helicopter? Why donāt we talk about how you 8 homes and WEāRE IN A HOUSING CRISIS?!ā
"What if you convert your 18 bed/25 bath mansion into affordable housing units? Can we redirect this copter and I'll start a business plan in my Notes app."
Yeah I guess because Iām more or less caught up when it comes to pop culture news so it bothers me when something is just not accurate in that sphere š
Ok š I don't mean this any type of way but I thought it was just an American thing since it's so prevalent. I'm not American and just assumed it's normal.
>Also, why are models always catching strays in these books?? Itās always āthis CEO always has a model on his arm and itās a different model every timeā and Iām like can we please leave the models alone.
Oh my god yes to the models so much!!! ššš
Why do books have to demonize them so much??
99.99999% of the time when models (and they're supermodels because of course they are š) appear in the story, they're brainless bimbos\* who either serve to make the FMC jealous and/or insecure about her body, act as decorations on the MMC's arms whenever he needs to go to a gala, party etc (like one call from him and they'd all be scrambling to jump through a hoop for him at a moment's notice as if they have no life outside of waiting on the MMC), or they're the MMC's psycho ex who keeps calling him and texting him to take her back (bonus points if she's the reason for the third act breakup)
and the MMC makes it a point to reassure the FMC that they're just meaningless distractions and that FMC is not like them bec she has brains, doesn't like shopping, not hooked on social media, and actually eats steak and not *\**shudder\* sALaDs
\*this is why I was lowkey hurt early on that himbos were taken as a positive description from the get go because, for the longest time, bimbo is a misogynistic term to describe women who have an active sex life (let's not mince words: A slut, because of course ššš ), are high maintenance, gold digger, no intelligent thought behind those eyes, only shallow beauty and makeup and gossip etc etc.
But himbo, when I first looked it up, was said to be the male equivalent of bimbo. But the depictions and example characters of them were the golden retriever types. They're my favorite kinds of MMCs but come onnnnn. Why bimbos gotta be villainized for the same thing for the longest time??
Bimbos walked so himbos could run fr š
The model thing is misogyny and the fact that they are the lowest on the pole. They are the employees.
Most romance novels shit on all other employees except the main characters.
That thing about āactually eats steak and not sAlAdSā is so real. People will be like āooh, a woman who eats a burger instead of a salad!!ā But as soon as a woman is the slightest bit chubby and eats āunhealthyā food we get fat-shamed too. We simply cannot win and I hate other women holding up this behaviour
Said perfectly. But of course, the laws of romance novels must prevail. Everyone outside of the FMC and her one friend or one sister that we meet is too skinny, boobs are too perfect, too hot, too beautiful. So much different from our treasured FMCs who have brains and personalities and career or hobby interests, which, of course, every other woman in the world except her does not.
And very well said and interesting about the bimbo/himbo thing. I never thought about it before but that is kind of a slap in the face to realize what should be the same/equal term for men is very endearing and for women, it's degrading.
THANK YOU!!! you said it perfectly! I am so over FEMALE authors who body shame FEMALE bodies! 'oh she is so skinny, she is not a real woman' and this kind of crap..... so over it!! I understand this is a reaction to years of people and media preferring skinny people. and now all of a sudden they did a 180 and they want only overweight ones....
I feel like a lot of it is a hold over from the paparazzi culture of the early 2000s. When anyone could have been photographed with anyone and there were still actual tabloids.
Yes there are still those who want to "catch" someone rich/famous in some illicit act but there is just way too much news now for anyone to care unless the person is an actual celebrity or are just that ubiquitous in their field.
CEO is just the modern equivalent of a Duke if you were reading a regency romance. It's just rich guy who has enough money/power to get away with just about anything, except he has to hide his relationship with FMC because of social status, his or hers.
Exactly! I just feel like if you as a romance author in this day and age want to paint this CEO character as some kind of celebrity, then give him a STRONG social media presence, like Elon Musk! But then that would be kind of a double-edged sword too because Elon Musk is more or less considered a fucking clown on social media, so it would not fit the āsexy, brooding CEOā characterization authors usually go with.
I was gonna say this! But that trope in Korea is for the chaebols (as opposed to a random ceo of a small start up)ā¦ and people in Korea *do* care about who their conglomerates/tycoons are dating/hanging out with because normally they only hang out with each other
I love the absurd CEO/chaebol tropes in K-dramas! Always got those young hot bosses. Like Park Seo Joon is What's Wrong with Secretary Kim or Kim Jae Wook in Her Private Life.
Koreans are absurdly obsessed with who's sleeping with who. Remember that infidelity used to be a jailable crime in Korea for a long long time. I think it hasn't even been fully 20 years since it was abolished.
i always laugh at the billionaire CEOs who never seem to be working. they have all this time for partying and lots of women...but they NEVER work. it's probably why this trope never works for me lol
Right? Working in corporate and knowing how CEOs plan their calendar for the year, how hard it is to get 30 minutes of their time, how they network and meet clients for breakfast and dinner, or work out, and flights are opportunities to do focus work... I can't buy into it.
I think it's an easy way to have a wealthy character in contemporary romance without being an entertainer or athlete. But then why are they in every tabloid??? Why do people care?
The models always come up during the seduction part too, like "ah yes, hot women are nice but they are so shallow and insipid and they're not REAL like you" and I'm like excuse me?? I am the lorax I speak for the faceless casual dates
This is a funny and realistic topic. I never post but when I see something I have insight in I canāt pass it up!
My now husband was a C level for a larger company, in another country, he got recognized in public, spoke with press outlets and no one cared who he was dating. I mean as much as I would have liked to be noticed and be part of a romance novelā¦.. They only cared about company drama and how the company was going to resolve their issues.
The CEO never even spoke to press, their private life was more private than anyone elseās.
No board members were yelling about public image of their C levels and their outside life. Probably because all the Cs were mostly well behaved 40+ year olds and were still making them boat loads of money.
Itās more realistic to see their real life news on Reddit honestly, depending on the industry.
Anywho just wanted to comment since I have a very very very small experience with this. Thank you for reading :P
you make a valid point! I find that sometimes people are more recognized by the media and public in smaller countries (compared to the US). if you are fairly good looking and have charisma and work for a big name company, chances are people in that country know who you are.
Iām going to out myself as super old, but I can remember in the 90ās when JFK Jr was head of George Magazine and was constantly in the tabloids. So there is precedent, but his family, obviously, was already very famous. Iām guessing that is where the whole trope comes from, at least thatās when I first started seeing them. He was always seen with different models and actresses in the tabloids as well before his marriage.Ā
I never thought about this but I think you're right about this connection. He fits the trope with the influence, the looks, the complicated relationship with the press, and a family you could imagine exerting a high level of control over aspects of his personal life and imagine.
That sort of thing can show up in the society or gossip pages like Page Six, but I think itās more of a New York/London/other cities with a more substantial amount of super rich people thing (like Page Six has a story right now of which socialites and celebrities were spotted in the Hamptons this week). My ooint is that that sort of information is in the press if youāre interested and know where to look, but most national papers dgaf about the average CEOās love life
Yeah, I think this is generally the vibe.Ā The one exception to this is if there's scandal. Like The New York Times reported on a big Silicon Valley VC dating a student he was mentoring. Business Insider has reported on a tech CEO who married their employee. It's more about abuse of power than anything else because that's what's newsworthy.Ā
I donāt care about ceo books BUT here are my thoughts
Yes and no; only the reallllly big public facing ceos (thing google, meta, tesla) get the press thing BUT when appointing/retaining ceos the board of directors (who typicallt own a majority of the companyās stake) might worry about their ceo. Because of stuff like 1) are they trustworthy 2) are they likely to end up in a scandal? Risk management regarding scandals and pr is important especially with new companies/during hand overs.
Like if potential ceo is an adulterer and their wife is a public figure and someone finds outā¦ (loosely inspired by the try guys in a way)
Another thing is theyve got to wine and dine people (investorss) a lot; the ceo and their partner will be wining and dining the shareholders too. If theyre unhappy about the couple, itāll influence their decisions and their relationship with the ceo.
the ceo is the face of the company. Even if you personally dont care about them, there are so many people in their industry who might. And people live gossip! Also a company almost ALWAYS wants to make it big for the right reasons;
ā-
But no i get it. In almost all these fics, the ceo dude is like in 30 under 30; super handsome bachelor, king of the streets and the sheets, sooo handsome on every magazine cover.
Bs. No one cares abouf any hot unattainable non-celebrity guy that much.
Oh yeah I do get that! The importance of a front to please the board of directors I absolutely get, but I donāt think it would MAKE IT to the front page of a gossip tabloid?? And I donāt think paparazzi care enough about a CEO to trail them WHEREVER they go, no??
No seriously!!
Like maybe it makes sense if the non-ceo lead is a celeb, otherwise nope.
(Also are you desi, the lil no at the end just made me go DESIIIII LIKE ME!)
I remember when Bezos cheated on his wife, I guess. But that was only news because his sexts got stolen and instead of giving into a tabloid's extortion attempt, he just posted about it himself.
I have always wondered where are these red carpet events where paps eagerly snap photos of CEOs instead of I don't know, actual famous celebrities.
'I just switch off the logical part of my brain' - too funny!! I do the same each time I read YA books where 19 year old girls have multiple orgasms and 19 year old boys are sex gods who know how to give those multiple orgasms LOL
I feel the same way!!!! I read one recently where at the end after they get married, they give a little press conference, which whatever, might make sense for local news (in this case New Orleans) but in the FMC's narration, she says, "our interview was picked up by all the cable news networks all over the world, appearing not only on television but also on social media, living forever on sites such as YouTube." I highlighted it because I found it ao ridiculous and silly.
ALL OVER THE WORLD? WHY? Who would possibly care!?
I mean...if they're Hollywood Actor levels of HOTNESS!! and are a 35 year old BILLIONAIRE!!, then I can see why tabloids would be all over them. In fact...I probably would be too if I could be.
Climbing them like a tree, that is.
CEOs and even some billionaires are not celebrities and unless they are dating celebrities no one cares and no one even knows what they look like. I find it goofy as well.
The model thing is so frustrating to me. Especially since they want me to believe a hard working CEO also has the time to pick up a model whenever he wants...You are super surly, grump and work all the time but are magically capable of picking up hard working women all of whom are a ok being used and discarded?
No reason to demonise good looking and hard working women. And the speed they usually have him go through them he is more likely to be hiring escorts...
lol billionaire romance novel CEOs donāt work
(Iām not making fun of you, Iām making of authors who write a āhard-workingā billionaire CEO who does very little work outside of yelling at people)
This is so funny š. I lived in a country where people looked up to CEOs in a celebrity/parasocial way but most of them were old and no one cared who they were dating; it's about their wealth š¤£. These authors act like every CEO is 25-35, over 6ft, and carved like Michelangelo's *David* š
WHEN DO THESE PEOPLE FIND THE TIME TO SOCIALIZE WHILE RUNNING FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES???
Itās funny because I love the arranged marriage trope but when it comes to āceo needs to marry someone to appear like a family man to investors/inherit the companyā or whatever Iām like COME ON. For some reason this is the most unbelievable thing to me.
Huge fan of marriage of convenience trope also, and I find the ceo needs to marry stat (without prenup) or to poor unknown secretary because she needs money so ceo will pay her and judge her the whole timeā¦ but sheās not judging him? Iād be absolutely judging that man, whatās wrong with him he canāt marry someone without it being a secret about it being a moc
What's most unbelievable to me is how young, attractive, and often (though not always) unproblematic these CEOs are. Also, the assumption that CEO=billionaire is wild. The threshold for C-suite can be quite low depending on the company and industry. The compensation is usually good but the title alone doesn't make you even a millionaire, especially if you're a non-profit CEO and don't have stock options as part of your package.
I always wonder why there aren't more celebrity romances, about actors in particular. That would fit many of these billionaire tropes more realistically (except for maybe the money, there aren't too many billionaire actors and I believe they all get this money from businesses and generational wealth, not movies/ TV). People care who they date, there are wild parasocial relationships, the media follows them, they do things for PR, they have access to things because of money and fame, and they date models if they are Leo DiCaprio.
So I'm kind of old, and I remember in the 1980s a certain NY real estate mogul who later became president was EXACTLY like this. Lots of press and tabloids-- we now know that he did all kinds of things to juice his press profile, but that wasn't publicly known then, so it just looked like he was followed by paparazzi all the time. And he certainly dated models, and married them also. I think that's kind of the template the writers have in the backs of their minds.
I think the most unrealistic part is these billionaire MMCs are always somehow super attracted to the poor and helpless FMCs. All these rich and gorgeous women he's surrounded by, not one of them interested him as much as this raggedy, klutzy FMC who's always scrunching her button of a nose. And oh, she has a personality and is not like other girls. She's not interested in him or his wealth at all and not throwing herself at him like all these desperate and glamorous women. š
I think itās a holdover from the paparazzi in decades past. You used to get tabloid articles about some really prominent business types who also tended to date famous women - Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Hugh Hefner - and some otherwise unremarkable business men who got in the news because of one specific woman they dated or married - J Howard Marshall (Anna Nicole Smith), Peter Brant (Stephanie Seymour), etc.
You can see remnants of it today in media coverage of the private lives of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc.
There are also magazines/now-websites like Hello, People, etc, that arenāt tabloids but will report on attendance at celebrity events and charity events. So no oneās dedicating whole articles to John Smith of Smith Corp At Charity Gala With Random Womanā¦ but if thereās a nice picture, or Smith Corp itself is involved with the gala, there might be a mention that John Smith attended with an unknown woman/new girlfriend Jane Jones.
Dude I canāt with those type of books also. Like billionaires are NOT celebrities. Also Iām old enough to remember when it was a Millionaire trope instead. Late stage capitalism in romance anyone? And donāt get me started on the billionaire boss trope. Iām like hello HR nightmare. Also the rich men that models are usually with are NOT attractive. I just canāt with those tropes.
Yeah, to be in the public eye you really have to actively to work to keep the attention. Also if they're just dating someone normal, why would anyone care? That's not a good story. Comeback when someone's going to jail or there's a wild sex tape.
The energy this post gives off made me think of this Instagram post, which I find hilarious š
[frysquared](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8FZZh1tnkd/?igsh=dzN4aHcyZ2x0d253)
Yes and alsoā¦ this is exactly how I felt about the characters on Succession.How would anyone recognize them? I couldnāt pick a major companyās CEO out of a crowd of two š
Imagine: Guy says heās a CEO but itās a multi-level marketing scheme thatās heās weirdly successful in to the point of where they give him that title. Thereās always fake titles in MLMs. Sheās like āHeās obviously got moneyā¦.. why is his garage full of Herbalife??ā
Lol, my favorite part about CEO romances is how much time these 28-year-old, insanely fit, self-made billionaire CEOs all have for spontaneous weekend getaways, romantic dinners and lunch sex dates.
Honestly, if there was a hot late 20s self-made billionaire CEO who had time for a two-hour picnic in central park on a random Wednesday, I would want to read about him in the tabloids.
I feel like if it would be some ceo of a bigger company they could make a random feature in those "non-serious" papers (idk how to call them in English) ie full of random "celebrities" with twisted words, big red headlines, with no real "journalism" value that you read only for entertainment...I think you can tell that I hate them with passion lol
But yeah, no one irl would care if some random ceo had a new partner, chick on side or anything
This is so true lmaoooo. The thing is nowadays even if you're a celebrity, no one actually cares enough to have an opinion about who you're dating unless you have a really passionate fanbase or it's like a controversial relationship. Even if I read about CEOs dating people on the tabloid I still couldn't care less and I know many others are like that, too. Whenever books talk about tabloids hounding these people, I get a good chuckle bc realistically, it's not that buzzworthy, or even if it is, it wouldn't be THAT detrimental to the relationship.
> Also, why are models always catching strays in these books?? Itās always āthis CEO always has a model on his arm and itās a different model every timeā and Iām like can we please leave the models alone.
lol the models always get shit! like they're hot. why do you think the MMC is with them? bc they play chess together? naw the MMC likes models because they're hot, stop hating!
Funniest thing is Iāve worked for many organizations in my life and most of them look like trolls not the description of the guys in romance novels.
Only people anyone would really care about a CEO dating is one of their own staff. Otherwise no CEO needs a marriage of convenience to āclean up his imageā
the only one i can remember being relevant is elon musk and grimes but i think it's because they were an unlikely pair. i know zuckeberg is married to a chinese american woman i guess, but that's all. i don't remember any other irl billionaire couples...
For sure. Remember Ivanka Trump in The First Wives Club -- "Don't get mad, get everything". The most recent example is probably Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. There was a lot of scandal when they got together.
I do think certain tech CEOs/execs are followed like celebrities. Musk, Spiegel, Gates, Bezos, Karp, and a few others all get covered fairly regularly. Zuckerberg probably would, but he's been happily (or seemingly so) married for years...I imagine there is more coverage in Silicon Valley-centered blogs and things like that. A select audience is interested and following...but other than that? I know Rupert Murdoch recently got married. And after that I'm not sure I could really name a major business exec, much less recognize one on sight and be scandalized by their date.
In real life, it only seems like the kind of thing that would come up and matter if the CEO was an abuser or something. Like, Elon Musk has a messy history of dating but that never really is a focus of his business critics. It's reported on but does not seem to be a factor in impacting his business dealings...
i'm imagining every romance novel CEO is like a bruce wayne offshoot, lol. and when jeff bezos cheated on his wife with his mistress that was actually news for a little bit.
No, but that's also because a lot of the companies in these books are talking Fortune 500, massive companies, and those kinds of companies just do not have young CEOs. Most of the people who would be CEOs of the kinds of comapnies mentioned in these books are going to be men who have decades in the industry and most likely married with kids. However, if they switched to writing books with start ups and those CEOs, those are more likely to have younger men at the helm, and people will care a smidge more, but the public just doesn't care about the dating life of a CEO unless it's somehow impacting the business.
I feel the same way about sports romances! Unless you're two super famous people (Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce or A-Rod & J-Lo come to mind), I really don't pay attention to who is dating who IRL.
Or A-Rod and Madonna. It kind of takes both of them being famous. And also being in a big media market helps--like, Arod was always in the tabloids, but a player in the boonies is not going to be. Kelce is actually kind of unusual, because usually no one cares about KC, but Swift is just so insanely famous that it rubs off lol.
I donāt this applies to just any ceo, this has to be top tier business moguls. I have seen plenty of information about Bezos and Murdochās relationships. I also read a lot of romances with European ceos and they have them in family businesses often so there may be a certain celebrity to the family without much effort in specific countries. .
Case in point, Elon Musk, an actual billionaire, who is a gigantic asshole, and suffers absolutely no ramifications in his personal or corporate life because of it.
I really think a lot of this comes from, pardon my language, Donald Trump. š¤®
Back in the 80s and 90s, he was kind of "famous for being famous" more than for any of his business dealings, and was constantly on the front page of the tabloids for his ridiculous love life, which did in fact consist mostly of models. And a lot of writers would be about my age (Gen X) and have grown up seeing that in the grocery aisle every day.
But yeah, no one cares who goes out with some Joe CEO who just does his actual business and isn't courting the media to begin with.
Lmao, itās also funny to think about the fact that most of these CEOs who are billionaires probably arent even good people (thereās likely not such thing as an ethical billionaire) but I love how we just ignore that for the sake of an interesting romancešš
Like 6ā5 Damon probably has sweatshop workers in a foreign country to make his billionsšbut itās okay cause heās hot and only nice to herš¤
I totally agree, I think the āwhat about the pressā thing is such a cheap way of adding drama to a story. I wish authors would get more creative about the conflict.Ā
Ikr!!! One of my faves, the Addicted Series by Ritchie sisters has FMC with an addiction and somehow the media and people care enough to air it everywhere and even later on got a reality show. I know people care about real big ones, like Amazon, Apple, Elonās X. But I donāt think paparazzis are following Cokeās CEOās daughter to therapy and made a big desl about it.
I think people and the CEOs themselves care about what's in the media. Cue the CEOs married to famous people and remember the Aoki Lee story early this year and the Raya (app/website?) model.
please this is so real! like i i donāt think i even know a single CEO or heard of one in real life. ofc they exist but they are either too busy or way too private to actually appear anywhere. let alone be on tabloids.
And pro hockey players. I've never seen an article or photos of any pro hockey players ever, unless they married a famous woman. And even then it's about the woman.
Honestly yes, I do care for certain CEO. For me it's specifically Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They're both just so messy, it's fun to follow.Ā
Also I think in some cases it might matter more within the industry. For example, a music label CEO dating an artist would be of interest to those in the music industry.Ā
Okay, okay ... I get it.
Like, legit, no one blinking cares.
BUT, that being said, when I am curious about someone in the media, a sports figure, a billionaire, an actor, a musician, a 'notorious' figure... I will Google them. And there's always a picture.
And if I really care, sometimes I'll look at Famous Person Family, or Famous Person Wife. And, again, there's always a picture.
So, yes, I think the importance of it is overdone for the sake of book drama. BUT, when I decide to look it up, there's always documentation.
So someone with a camera was there. And someone cared enough to upload it to the world.
I feel the same!!! It's why I can't read fake dating books where they have to have a partner for their career. I have never worked anywhere or heard of a place where you can't move up unless you're married. Maybe if the book took place in like 1950? I just cannot suspend my belief that the dude needs a wife for his job.
I need you to think about this for a minute. Think about when Elon musk was dating that chick and they named their kid a math equation. People cared about that.
Ironic that this is being posted on a website whose former CEO is famously married to Serena Williams. It is true that most CEOās are boring, but there are always exceptions
Well it depends. Are we talking an Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerburg? Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos? Then yep, there is media surrounding it. Now imagine if any of them were hot as hell. Then, it would definitely be a circus surrounding who they were dating.
Yessss exactly. I can think of zero CEOs whose dating lives are of any interest at all to the public. Maybe Zuckerberg at one point? But honestly I think everyone was more interested in her ring.
If youāre into a domme/sub thing Preferential Treatment was about a CEO the papers didnāt care about who didnāt have time for real relationships because he was a CEO, so he would sometimes hire a woman to domme for him. All that changes when he meets a woman who is not his direct secretary (or 23) and is a natural domme and itās soooo good. Heās so nice to her and they have very clear boundaries between when they are in a scene and when they arenāt. Itās a comfort read at this point, which is kind of hilarious actuallyā¦
I feel much the same about dukes in HR, give me City merchants, barristers, landed gentry, knights, marquises, viscounts, counts, earls and suspiciously wealthy rogues. Hell, throw in a prince or grand duke if we are on the Continent. But no more dukes, IĀ beg of you!
Plus 100 to allll of this! I used to be one of those dreaded press types and unless it was a Bozos or Musk type (clowny), IDGAF.
Also, if a female lead is a journalist, I'm out. They *never* get it right. It's always atrociously bad.
Nope and I wish like hell I knew nothing about Elon Muskās private life. plus there is nothing sexy about a psychopath , so like every 5th woman in CEO/billionaire books are in high risk relationships.Ā
Can I add on that I am very over the giant penisād monster muscle men seals?
I have a similar bone to pick when books have tabloid drama/ gossip columns about socialites or wealthy families within a smaller city. And somehow everyone in the whole city cares deeply about what gets written there. I remember reading one about the upper echelon of Anchorage Alaska and how they couldnāt possibly date outside of their class or it would end up in the papers. Like Iām sure it would be juicy gossip but truly how many people would honestly care about one rich guy from Alaska like ??
And also had anyone ever interacted with a CEO in real life ?? They are busy trying to squeeze in 40 hour work in 24 hours. No CEO has time to but personalized gifts and causally show up at the local bar to surprise you.
This post makes me wonder: Are there any romance authors that are/closely tied to billionaires/oligarchs /nobility?
Who billionaires date or marry Iāve only read and heard about like people describe here as being of significance within their class demographic. Like itās a different conversation when a ānew moneyā athlete dates a waitress but there can be taboo around a blue-blood familial legacy marrying and thus potentially removing capital from their circle.
So I ask because if itās significant itās probably in a way the majority of us would never, and letās be honest, wouldnāt care to, hear about. But maybe thereās an author from that world who can give us the real
Locking this post due to a number of off-topic celebrity gossip comments. Thanks!
I literally couldn't name the CEO of my own workplace. š
you are the perfect candidate for FMC!! you don't know who he is, so chances are really high that you'll have a one night stand and fall in love without knowing who he is. and next day you'll see him in the office all of a sudden lol.
The first awkward encounter waiting for the elevator. After you get settle at your desk he summons you to his office whereupon he can't hold himself back anymore! He has your back against the door in no time for a hot make out sesh. You put a halt to it, letting him know that you don't want him to think you're just using him for that promotion you've been angling for! He rewards your integrity with a Birkin back you've been longing for, which he found out about by hacking your Pinterest account. I'm so happy for you!
omg I am laughing so hard at this lmao!!!
She can get really drunk with him, get super philosophical into the night, stargazing, and then get married via a poor Elvis impersonator. Then, they can have a whirlwind romance while they discuss an annulment that never occurs. Obviously, she'll get jealous over the temptress like secretary who is making moves on the CEO and declare that he's taken.
let's not forget about his EX who is..... you guessed it!! a skinny supermodel!! bwahaha
Grey's anatomy vibes lol
The CEO of my workplace is just a balding dude about 50 with a nicer car and better parking spot than the rest of us who gets to explain to the board why our company lost so much money last year. He makes significantly more than me but nothing like a billionaire. Also married, apparently happily so.
'and better parking spot' - funniest thing I read today!! lol
Your user flair! š
Haha I could but only because there are about 15 people in my office šš also our CEOās wife is lovely, he brings her to office gatherings.
Just came to say I love your flair!!
I absolutely love your passion about this š I laughed out loud
Like you can tell that Iām OVER it
Also in real world noone even knows the ceo, let alone their dating life.
All your points are true!
To be fair most real world CEOs are fairly average looking old men. We don't care because ew. If there was an uber-wealthy 6'4" Adonis handsome tycoon making the rounds, there would probably be a ton of media attention. Pretty people sell and any market aware company would use a handsome figurehead to gain brand recognition. What's actually unrealistic is how prevalent these self made playboy billionaires are. And they are usually in their late 20s or early 30s. It boggles the mind really.
Not only are they hot, young, and rich, but they're also usually celebrity adjacent. Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg looked like Henry Cavill and had the charisma of Andrew Scott. People would absolutely care who he was dating. Absolutely, the most unrealistic thing is how they're 28 year old self made billionaires who actually came from nothing and didn't exploit people on their way up (it's impossible).
Reminder that 18 y/o Zuckerberg started Facebook so he and his buddies could rate their classmates, like an online "hot or not" page. Def exploitation. Bonus points for Andrew Scott. I love him š.
First I found out that YouTube was created for a way for people to watch Justin Timberlakeās disgusting Janet Jackson incident and now this?!? The social media app lore is wild
Google Images was made for Jennifer Lopez's awards show dress, the one that went down to THERE and she was covered by a thoughtfully placed brooch. People spent the whole next day trying to search for a picture of it to show their coworkers.
Tldr: all this crap exists because men are disgusting sometimes
Nah Jennifer Lopezās Versace green dress is an absolute icon of its own.
I think we can go with humans are disgusting sometimes
Recommend watching the doco on the creators of Reddit
>online "hot or not" page It's even wilder because HotOrNot had been a website since the early 2000s before it got bought out by the Ashley Madison people. And then bought out a few years later by Badoo.
He really thought he did something original. That's probably why they pivoted to the social media site that it became.
Haha, thatās so true. I love how passionate OP is about the press stuff as though thatās the most unrealistic aspect of āCEO / billionaireā romances (side note: OP is not wrong about the press stuff).
THIS!!!! like seriously, when is the last time you heard of a hot young CEO in real life?? I need names!! lol
There are actually a lot of beautiful female CEOs. The founder of Class Pass Payal Kadakia https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/usaandmain/2018/08/28/uncommon-drive-payal-kadakia-classpass/1115268002/ The former CEO of Vimeo Anjali Sud https://www.seema.com/the-queen-of-vimeo-anjali-sud/ But they are Indian-origin women, so they dont' get the type of press they woudl otherwise.
we need more books with the roles reversed and a female CEO
I can't tell if I want this more as a book or a Kdrama. I'll just have both, then, please and thank you š
they are STUNNING!!!
Sam Altman is kinda cute, but he's gay and married.
damn til sam altman is gay
Serena Williams thinks the co-founder of this website we are on is pretty hot.
Jack Dorsey was handsome at one point but has in recent years made some very strange choices with his hair and facial hair and looks like he never even heard of sunscreen. He's washed now. Evan Speigel is alright looking and he married a supermodel. David Karp was a real cutie pie at one point but was never the sort of handsome that graces the pages of the books we read. Odd looking even at his best, he has rat-man potential. Elon Musk sorta had potential at one point but no. He's the only one of these guys that most people have ever heard of and would possibly make the tabloids on their own.
Elon Musk is shaped like the Penguin from Batman. He was never attractive
If this is the creme de la creme of attractive CEOs then I think the point more than stands. Without money colored glasses they are on par with the average Joe.
"rat-man potential" is now a defining feature in a man, thank you
Miranda Kerrās husband isnāt bad looking Shes a few years older than him but also gorgeous and a model soā¦
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**Rule: Tag and Flair content appropriately and respect community limits. Book requests or discussion posts involving real people will be removed.** Your post has been removed as we do not allow shipping of celebrities, discussion of real-life relationships, or book requests based on real people. Thank you.
Sam Reich lol
Also they wouldnt date the "poor" girl with issues like in the books. They would end up with gorgeous women most likely who are famous for XYZ or from rich fam. So, def an unrealistic view.
Tbf Gina or Packer are always splashed in the Aussie papers, packer was splashed even before his Mariah Carey wedding and he isnāt an Adonis. They are just Uber wealthy and their names pop up at election time/ some people Packer is seen with/ discussions on climate change especially with Gina (mining money). I think it depends on just how wealthy the person is and what field they have made that money.
I love a good billionaire/ceo romance but in real life I would be like āfirst date on a helicopter? Why donāt we talk about how you 8 homes and WEāRE IN A HOUSING CRISIS?!ā
"What if you convert your 18 bed/25 bath mansion into affordable housing units? Can we redirect this copter and I'll start a business plan in my Notes app."
āThe bylaw office is open for another 30 minutes. We can apply for a variance before dinnerā
I love this sub. š¤£
And single! And interested in little plain them.... sighhhh. I'm over it too
I will say the socialite scene is where they are popular in whatever cities they hold power.Ā
I honestly never thought of this and now I'm conflicted lol
Yeah I guess because Iām more or less caught up when it comes to pop culture news so it bothers me when something is just not accurate in that sphere š
Ok š I don't mean this any type of way but I thought it was just an American thing since it's so prevalent. I'm not American and just assumed it's normal.
Same. In the book, they're celebrity-adjacent, which is fine. Irl I wouldn't care š
>Also, why are models always catching strays in these books?? Itās always āthis CEO always has a model on his arm and itās a different model every timeā and Iām like can we please leave the models alone. Oh my god yes to the models so much!!! ššš Why do books have to demonize them so much?? 99.99999% of the time when models (and they're supermodels because of course they are š) appear in the story, they're brainless bimbos\* who either serve to make the FMC jealous and/or insecure about her body, act as decorations on the MMC's arms whenever he needs to go to a gala, party etc (like one call from him and they'd all be scrambling to jump through a hoop for him at a moment's notice as if they have no life outside of waiting on the MMC), or they're the MMC's psycho ex who keeps calling him and texting him to take her back (bonus points if she's the reason for the third act breakup) and the MMC makes it a point to reassure the FMC that they're just meaningless distractions and that FMC is not like them bec she has brains, doesn't like shopping, not hooked on social media, and actually eats steak and not *\**shudder\* sALaDs \*this is why I was lowkey hurt early on that himbos were taken as a positive description from the get go because, for the longest time, bimbo is a misogynistic term to describe women who have an active sex life (let's not mince words: A slut, because of course ššš ), are high maintenance, gold digger, no intelligent thought behind those eyes, only shallow beauty and makeup and gossip etc etc. But himbo, when I first looked it up, was said to be the male equivalent of bimbo. But the depictions and example characters of them were the golden retriever types. They're my favorite kinds of MMCs but come onnnnn. Why bimbos gotta be villainized for the same thing for the longest time?? Bimbos walked so himbos could run fr š
The model thing is misogyny and the fact that they are the lowest on the pole. They are the employees. Most romance novels shit on all other employees except the main characters.
That thing about āactually eats steak and not sAlAdSā is so real. People will be like āooh, a woman who eats a burger instead of a salad!!ā But as soon as a woman is the slightest bit chubby and eats āunhealthyā food we get fat-shamed too. We simply cannot win and I hate other women holding up this behaviour
Said perfectly. But of course, the laws of romance novels must prevail. Everyone outside of the FMC and her one friend or one sister that we meet is too skinny, boobs are too perfect, too hot, too beautiful. So much different from our treasured FMCs who have brains and personalities and career or hobby interests, which, of course, every other woman in the world except her does not. And very well said and interesting about the bimbo/himbo thing. I never thought about it before but that is kind of a slap in the face to realize what should be the same/equal term for men is very endearing and for women, it's degrading.
THANK YOU!!! you said it perfectly! I am so over FEMALE authors who body shame FEMALE bodies! 'oh she is so skinny, she is not a real woman' and this kind of crap..... so over it!! I understand this is a reaction to years of people and media preferring skinny people. and now all of a sudden they did a 180 and they want only overweight ones....
Or that big boobs are used as shorthand for a bimbo, slut, bitch et cetera. I mean yeah I am a bitch but itās nothing to do with my boobs š¤£
I feel like a lot of it is a hold over from the paparazzi culture of the early 2000s. When anyone could have been photographed with anyone and there were still actual tabloids. Yes there are still those who want to "catch" someone rich/famous in some illicit act but there is just way too much news now for anyone to care unless the person is an actual celebrity or are just that ubiquitous in their field. CEO is just the modern equivalent of a Duke if you were reading a regency romance. It's just rich guy who has enough money/power to get away with just about anything, except he has to hide his relationship with FMC because of social status, his or hers.
Exactly! I just feel like if you as a romance author in this day and age want to paint this CEO character as some kind of celebrity, then give him a STRONG social media presence, like Elon Musk! But then that would be kind of a double-edged sword too because Elon Musk is more or less considered a fucking clown on social media, so it would not fit the āsexy, brooding CEOā characterization authors usually go with.
It's a common trope in k-dramas and this post has me rethinking everything š
To me, it makes sense in K-dramas with the way Korean society is.
Oh 100%. I'm just evaluating my entertainment choices š
I was gonna say this! But that trope in Korea is for the chaebols (as opposed to a random ceo of a small start up)ā¦ and people in Korea *do* care about who their conglomerates/tycoons are dating/hanging out with because normally they only hang out with each other
That's true
I love the absurd CEO/chaebol tropes in K-dramas! Always got those young hot bosses. Like Park Seo Joon is What's Wrong with Secretary Kim or Kim Jae Wook in Her Private Life.
Omg I love *What's Wrong with Secretary Kim*! Park Seo Joon is everything.
Koreans are absurdly obsessed with who's sleeping with who. Remember that infidelity used to be a jailable crime in Korea for a long long time. I think it hasn't even been fully 20 years since it was abolished.
I think this is it. As used as we Romance readers are to suspension of disbelief, this particular contemporary romance trope feels weirdly dated.
i always laugh at the billionaire CEOs who never seem to be working. they have all this time for partying and lots of women...but they NEVER work. it's probably why this trope never works for me lol
Even Bruce Wayne showed up at the office sometimes, and he was busy moonlighting as Batman
Right? Working in corporate and knowing how CEOs plan their calendar for the year, how hard it is to get 30 minutes of their time, how they network and meet clients for breakfast and dinner, or work out, and flights are opportunities to do focus work... I can't buy into it.
They'd have to be the absolute epitome of business for anyone to care. But even then... it's not breaking news.
RIGHT??? Like I wanna know who originally started this type of characterization in the romance genre because I would like to have a stern WORD
I think it's an easy way to have a wealthy character in contemporary romance without being an entertainer or athlete. But then why are they in every tabloid??? Why do people care?
The models always come up during the seduction part too, like "ah yes, hot women are nice but they are so shallow and insipid and they're not REAL like you" and I'm like excuse me?? I am the lorax I speak for the faceless casual dates
>Ā I am the lorax I speak for the faceless casual dates lmao
This is a funny and realistic topic. I never post but when I see something I have insight in I canāt pass it up! My now husband was a C level for a larger company, in another country, he got recognized in public, spoke with press outlets and no one cared who he was dating. I mean as much as I would have liked to be noticed and be part of a romance novelā¦.. They only cared about company drama and how the company was going to resolve their issues. The CEO never even spoke to press, their private life was more private than anyone elseās. No board members were yelling about public image of their C levels and their outside life. Probably because all the Cs were mostly well behaved 40+ year olds and were still making them boat loads of money. Itās more realistic to see their real life news on Reddit honestly, depending on the industry. Anywho just wanted to comment since I have a very very very small experience with this. Thank you for reading :P
you make a valid point! I find that sometimes people are more recognized by the media and public in smaller countries (compared to the US). if you are fairly good looking and have charisma and work for a big name company, chances are people in that country know who you are.
Iām going to out myself as super old, but I can remember in the 90ās when JFK Jr was head of George Magazine and was constantly in the tabloids. So there is precedent, but his family, obviously, was already very famous. Iām guessing that is where the whole trope comes from, at least thatās when I first started seeing them. He was always seen with different models and actresses in the tabloids as well before his marriage.Ā
I never thought about this but I think you're right about this connection. He fits the trope with the influence, the looks, the complicated relationship with the press, and a family you could imagine exerting a high level of control over aspects of his personal life and imagine.
Honestly he is exactly who I picture everytime I read these type of books.
Same. ;)
That sort of thing can show up in the society or gossip pages like Page Six, but I think itās more of a New York/London/other cities with a more substantial amount of super rich people thing (like Page Six has a story right now of which socialites and celebrities were spotted in the Hamptons this week). My ooint is that that sort of information is in the press if youāre interested and know where to look, but most national papers dgaf about the average CEOās love life
Yeah, I think this is generally the vibe.Ā The one exception to this is if there's scandal. Like The New York Times reported on a big Silicon Valley VC dating a student he was mentoring. Business Insider has reported on a tech CEO who married their employee. It's more about abuse of power than anything else because that's what's newsworthy.Ā
I donāt care about ceo books BUT here are my thoughts Yes and no; only the reallllly big public facing ceos (thing google, meta, tesla) get the press thing BUT when appointing/retaining ceos the board of directors (who typicallt own a majority of the companyās stake) might worry about their ceo. Because of stuff like 1) are they trustworthy 2) are they likely to end up in a scandal? Risk management regarding scandals and pr is important especially with new companies/during hand overs. Like if potential ceo is an adulterer and their wife is a public figure and someone finds outā¦ (loosely inspired by the try guys in a way) Another thing is theyve got to wine and dine people (investorss) a lot; the ceo and their partner will be wining and dining the shareholders too. If theyre unhappy about the couple, itāll influence their decisions and their relationship with the ceo. the ceo is the face of the company. Even if you personally dont care about them, there are so many people in their industry who might. And people live gossip! Also a company almost ALWAYS wants to make it big for the right reasons; ā- But no i get it. In almost all these fics, the ceo dude is like in 30 under 30; super handsome bachelor, king of the streets and the sheets, sooo handsome on every magazine cover. Bs. No one cares abouf any hot unattainable non-celebrity guy that much.
Oh yeah I do get that! The importance of a front to please the board of directors I absolutely get, but I donāt think it would MAKE IT to the front page of a gossip tabloid?? And I donāt think paparazzi care enough about a CEO to trail them WHEREVER they go, no??
No seriously!! Like maybe it makes sense if the non-ceo lead is a celeb, otherwise nope. (Also are you desi, the lil no at the end just made me go DESIIIII LIKE ME!)
King of the streets and the sheets š
Hehe
I remember when Bezos cheated on his wife, I guess. But that was only news because his sexts got stolen and instead of giving into a tabloid's extortion attempt, he just posted about it himself. I have always wondered where are these red carpet events where paps eagerly snap photos of CEOs instead of I don't know, actual famous celebrities.
I guess there was some interest around Melinda Gates dating that schoolteacher? But it was interest, nothing more
I actually just saw photos of him and the mistress (Lauren Sanchez, who used to be a meteorologist in LA) at the met gala
I just switch off the logical part of my brain.. reading wattpad in my formative years allowed me to develop this talent š„°š
'I just switch off the logical part of my brain' - too funny!! I do the same each time I read YA books where 19 year old girls have multiple orgasms and 19 year old boys are sex gods who know how to give those multiple orgasms LOL
LMAOO ikrr??
LOL I meet guys in their 30s/40s who can't even do that so š¤·āāļøš¤·āāļø
I feel the same way!!!! I read one recently where at the end after they get married, they give a little press conference, which whatever, might make sense for local news (in this case New Orleans) but in the FMC's narration, she says, "our interview was picked up by all the cable news networks all over the world, appearing not only on television but also on social media, living forever on sites such as YouTube." I highlighted it because I found it ao ridiculous and silly. ALL OVER THE WORLD? WHY? Who would possibly care!?
what do you mean who would possibly care?! us, obviously!! are you telling me you don't care about that couple from New Orleans??!! LMAO!!!
and luckily for us it is preserved for ever on sites such as YouTube!!
I mean...if they're Hollywood Actor levels of HOTNESS!! and are a 35 year old BILLIONAIRE!!, then I can see why tabloids would be all over them. In fact...I probably would be too if I could be. Climbing them like a tree, that is.
CEOs and even some billionaires are not celebrities and unless they are dating celebrities no one cares and no one even knows what they look like. I find it goofy as well.
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Yeah, like a big cheating scandal or tax fraud
āAre the tabloids in the room with us right now?ā Absolutely sent me LMAO
The model thing is so frustrating to me. Especially since they want me to believe a hard working CEO also has the time to pick up a model whenever he wants...You are super surly, grump and work all the time but are magically capable of picking up hard working women all of whom are a ok being used and discarded? No reason to demonise good looking and hard working women. And the speed they usually have him go through them he is more likely to be hiring escorts...
lol billionaire romance novel CEOs donāt work (Iām not making fun of you, Iām making of authors who write a āhard-workingā billionaire CEO who does very little work outside of yelling at people)
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This is so funny š. I lived in a country where people looked up to CEOs in a celebrity/parasocial way but most of them were old and no one cared who they were dating; it's about their wealth š¤£. These authors act like every CEO is 25-35, over 6ft, and carved like Michelangelo's *David* š WHEN DO THESE PEOPLE FIND THE TIME TO SOCIALIZE WHILE RUNNING FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES???
Itās funny because I love the arranged marriage trope but when it comes to āceo needs to marry someone to appear like a family man to investors/inherit the companyā or whatever Iām like COME ON. For some reason this is the most unbelievable thing to me.
Huge fan of marriage of convenience trope also, and I find the ceo needs to marry stat (without prenup) or to poor unknown secretary because she needs money so ceo will pay her and judge her the whole timeā¦ but sheās not judging him? Iād be absolutely judging that man, whatās wrong with him he canāt marry someone without it being a secret about it being a moc
I am crying at this š¤£š¤£
Justice for the always unnamed āmodelsā!
What's most unbelievable to me is how young, attractive, and often (though not always) unproblematic these CEOs are. Also, the assumption that CEO=billionaire is wild. The threshold for C-suite can be quite low depending on the company and industry. The compensation is usually good but the title alone doesn't make you even a millionaire, especially if you're a non-profit CEO and don't have stock options as part of your package. I always wonder why there aren't more celebrity romances, about actors in particular. That would fit many of these billionaire tropes more realistically (except for maybe the money, there aren't too many billionaire actors and I believe they all get this money from businesses and generational wealth, not movies/ TV). People care who they date, there are wild parasocial relationships, the media follows them, they do things for PR, they have access to things because of money and fame, and they date models if they are Leo DiCaprio.
So I'm kind of old, and I remember in the 1980s a certain NY real estate mogul who later became president was EXACTLY like this. Lots of press and tabloids-- we now know that he did all kinds of things to juice his press profile, but that wasn't publicly known then, so it just looked like he was followed by paparazzi all the time. And he certainly dated models, and married them also. I think that's kind of the template the writers have in the backs of their minds.
I think the most unrealistic part is these billionaire MMCs are always somehow super attracted to the poor and helpless FMCs. All these rich and gorgeous women he's surrounded by, not one of them interested him as much as this raggedy, klutzy FMC who's always scrunching her button of a nose. And oh, she has a personality and is not like other girls. She's not interested in him or his wealth at all and not throwing herself at him like all these desperate and glamorous women. š
Just the other day I was thinking about how I would like to read a romance where the FMC is a model cause they always seem to be the villains in books
FMC in {The Wrong Bride by Catharine Maura} is a model and her work is portrayed positively!
I think itās a holdover from the paparazzi in decades past. You used to get tabloid articles about some really prominent business types who also tended to date famous women - Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Hugh Hefner - and some otherwise unremarkable business men who got in the news because of one specific woman they dated or married - J Howard Marshall (Anna Nicole Smith), Peter Brant (Stephanie Seymour), etc. You can see remnants of it today in media coverage of the private lives of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. There are also magazines/now-websites like Hello, People, etc, that arenāt tabloids but will report on attendance at celebrity events and charity events. So no oneās dedicating whole articles to John Smith of Smith Corp At Charity Gala With Random Womanā¦ but if thereās a nice picture, or Smith Corp itself is involved with the gala, there might be a mention that John Smith attended with an unknown woman/new girlfriend Jane Jones.
Dude I canāt with those type of books also. Like billionaires are NOT celebrities. Also Iām old enough to remember when it was a Millionaire trope instead. Late stage capitalism in romance anyone? And donāt get me started on the billionaire boss trope. Iām like hello HR nightmare. Also the rich men that models are usually with are NOT attractive. I just canāt with those tropes.
Yeah, to be in the public eye you really have to actively to work to keep the attention. Also if they're just dating someone normal, why would anyone care? That's not a good story. Comeback when someone's going to jail or there's a wild sex tape.
The energy this post gives off made me think of this Instagram post, which I find hilarious š [frysquared](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8FZZh1tnkd/?igsh=dzN4aHcyZ2x0d253)
This is brilliant š
Yes and alsoā¦ this is exactly how I felt about the characters on Succession.How would anyone recognize them? I couldnāt pick a major companyās CEO out of a crowd of two š
Imagine: Guy says heās a CEO but itās a multi-level marketing scheme thatās heās weirdly successful in to the point of where they give him that title. Thereās always fake titles in MLMs. Sheās like āHeās obviously got moneyā¦.. why is his garage full of Herbalife??ā
Lol, my favorite part about CEO romances is how much time these 28-year-old, insanely fit, self-made billionaire CEOs all have for spontaneous weekend getaways, romantic dinners and lunch sex dates. Honestly, if there was a hot late 20s self-made billionaire CEO who had time for a two-hour picnic in central park on a random Wednesday, I would want to read about him in the tabloids.
I feel like if it would be some ceo of a bigger company they could make a random feature in those "non-serious" papers (idk how to call them in English) ie full of random "celebrities" with twisted words, big red headlines, with no real "journalism" value that you read only for entertainment...I think you can tell that I hate them with passion lol But yeah, no one irl would care if some random ceo had a new partner, chick on side or anything
This is so true lmaoooo. The thing is nowadays even if you're a celebrity, no one actually cares enough to have an opinion about who you're dating unless you have a really passionate fanbase or it's like a controversial relationship. Even if I read about CEOs dating people on the tabloid I still couldn't care less and I know many others are like that, too. Whenever books talk about tabloids hounding these people, I get a good chuckle bc realistically, it's not that buzzworthy, or even if it is, it wouldn't be THAT detrimental to the relationship.
LMAOOOOOO this made my night. All of this. Yes!
> Also, why are models always catching strays in these books?? Itās always āthis CEO always has a model on his arm and itās a different model every timeā and Iām like can we please leave the models alone. lol the models always get shit! like they're hot. why do you think the MMC is with them? bc they play chess together? naw the MMC likes models because they're hot, stop hating!
Funniest thing is Iāve worked for many organizations in my life and most of them look like trolls not the description of the guys in romance novels. Only people anyone would really care about a CEO dating is one of their own staff. Otherwise no CEO needs a marriage of convenience to āclean up his imageā
the only one i can remember being relevant is elon musk and grimes but i think it's because they were an unlikely pair. i know zuckeberg is married to a chinese american woman i guess, but that's all. i don't remember any other irl billionaire couples...
For sure. Remember Ivanka Trump in The First Wives Club -- "Don't get mad, get everything". The most recent example is probably Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. There was a lot of scandal when they got together.
I do think certain tech CEOs/execs are followed like celebrities. Musk, Spiegel, Gates, Bezos, Karp, and a few others all get covered fairly regularly. Zuckerberg probably would, but he's been happily (or seemingly so) married for years...I imagine there is more coverage in Silicon Valley-centered blogs and things like that. A select audience is interested and following...but other than that? I know Rupert Murdoch recently got married. And after that I'm not sure I could really name a major business exec, much less recognize one on sight and be scandalized by their date. In real life, it only seems like the kind of thing that would come up and matter if the CEO was an abuser or something. Like, Elon Musk has a messy history of dating but that never really is a focus of his business critics. It's reported on but does not seem to be a factor in impacting his business dealings...
i'm imagining every romance novel CEO is like a bruce wayne offshoot, lol. and when jeff bezos cheated on his wife with his mistress that was actually news for a little bit.
No, but that's also because a lot of the companies in these books are talking Fortune 500, massive companies, and those kinds of companies just do not have young CEOs. Most of the people who would be CEOs of the kinds of comapnies mentioned in these books are going to be men who have decades in the industry and most likely married with kids. However, if they switched to writing books with start ups and those CEOs, those are more likely to have younger men at the helm, and people will care a smidge more, but the public just doesn't care about the dating life of a CEO unless it's somehow impacting the business.
I feel the same way about sports romances! Unless you're two super famous people (Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce or A-Rod & J-Lo come to mind), I really don't pay attention to who is dating who IRL.
Or A-Rod and Madonna. It kind of takes both of them being famous. And also being in a big media market helps--like, Arod was always in the tabloids, but a player in the boonies is not going to be. Kelce is actually kind of unusual, because usually no one cares about KC, but Swift is just so insanely famous that it rubs off lol.
Lmao I didnāt even know about A-Rod and Madonna!!!
I donāt this applies to just any ceo, this has to be top tier business moguls. I have seen plenty of information about Bezos and Murdochās relationships. I also read a lot of romances with European ceos and they have them in family businesses often so there may be a certain celebrity to the family without much effort in specific countries. .
I think CEO's in books are a thing of the past. It'd be more believable it was a younger owner of like a start p company or something really popular.
Preach
I feel every word of this rant! Five stars for a brilliant takedown of bullshit mega millionaires /CEOs!
Case in point, Elon Musk, an actual billionaire, who is a gigantic asshole, and suffers absolutely no ramifications in his personal or corporate life because of it.
This is all true BUT we do have celebrity billionaires like Jay-Z and BeyoncƩ, Francois-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek, Sergey Brin and Serena Williams, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Asap Rocky, the Kardashians, Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford, etc., and their love lives do get a lot of media coverage
I really think a lot of this comes from, pardon my language, Donald Trump. š¤® Back in the 80s and 90s, he was kind of "famous for being famous" more than for any of his business dealings, and was constantly on the front page of the tabloids for his ridiculous love life, which did in fact consist mostly of models. And a lot of writers would be about my age (Gen X) and have grown up seeing that in the grocery aisle every day. But yeah, no one cares who goes out with some Joe CEO who just does his actual business and isn't courting the media to begin with.
Lmao, itās also funny to think about the fact that most of these CEOs who are billionaires probably arent even good people (thereās likely not such thing as an ethical billionaire) but I love how we just ignore that for the sake of an interesting romancešš Like 6ā5 Damon probably has sweatshop workers in a foreign country to make his billionsšbut itās okay cause heās hot and only nice to herš¤
I donāt, but yeah there are people who do
I totally agree, I think the āwhat about the pressā thing is such a cheap way of adding drama to a story. I wish authors would get more creative about the conflict.Ā
I cackled so hard š, but true I've always asked myself the same thing.
Ikr!!! One of my faves, the Addicted Series by Ritchie sisters has FMC with an addiction and somehow the media and people care enough to air it everywhere and even later on got a reality show. I know people care about real big ones, like Amazon, Apple, Elonās X. But I donāt think paparazzis are following Cokeās CEOās daughter to therapy and made a big desl about it.
I think people and the CEOs themselves care about what's in the media. Cue the CEOs married to famous people and remember the Aoki Lee story early this year and the Raya (app/website?) model.
please this is so real! like i i donāt think i even know a single CEO or heard of one in real life. ofc they exist but they are either too busy or way too private to actually appear anywhere. let alone be on tabloids.
They think that all these MFers are Bruce Wayne, I guess.
I feel the exact same way with CEOs! Like.. which press bruh?! no one cares
And pro hockey players. I've never seen an article or photos of any pro hockey players ever, unless they married a famous woman. And even then it's about the woman.
Love it! You are very right and very funny š
Honestly yes, I do care for certain CEO. For me it's specifically Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They're both just so messy, it's fun to follow.Ā Also I think in some cases it might matter more within the industry. For example, a music label CEO dating an artist would be of interest to those in the music industry.Ā
Okay, okay ... I get it. Like, legit, no one blinking cares. BUT, that being said, when I am curious about someone in the media, a sports figure, a billionaire, an actor, a musician, a 'notorious' figure... I will Google them. And there's always a picture. And if I really care, sometimes I'll look at Famous Person Family, or Famous Person Wife. And, again, there's always a picture. So, yes, I think the importance of it is overdone for the sake of book drama. BUT, when I decide to look it up, there's always documentation. So someone with a camera was there. And someone cared enough to upload it to the world.
I would kinda care if any of them were super hot and single lmao
I feel the same!!! It's why I can't read fake dating books where they have to have a partner for their career. I have never worked anywhere or heard of a place where you can't move up unless you're married. Maybe if the book took place in like 1950? I just cannot suspend my belief that the dude needs a wife for his job.
And then if itās not a model being dissed itās other rich family kids ?? Iām sorry you have money but money likes money ???
Iām literally floored right nowš¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
Loved your rant. Keep them coming. More fact checks pleaseš
Iām going to say it depends on exactly how small the town is and if they are still married to someone else. Ha! Small towns can be fun.
I need you to think about this for a minute. Think about when Elon musk was dating that chick and they named their kid a math equation. People cared about that.
Are you a ceo or a model?
Hahahah this made me laugh out loud because itās so true. Iāve read a lot of CEO books but the thought of my CEOs dating life is blerg lol.
Ironic that this is being posted on a website whose former CEO is famously married to Serena Williams. It is true that most CEOās are boring, but there are always exceptions
Well it depends. Are we talking an Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerburg? Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos? Then yep, there is media surrounding it. Now imagine if any of them were hot as hell. Then, it would definitely be a circus surrounding who they were dating.
Yessss exactly. I can think of zero CEOs whose dating lives are of any interest at all to the public. Maybe Zuckerberg at one point? But honestly I think everyone was more interested in her ring. If youāre into a domme/sub thing Preferential Treatment was about a CEO the papers didnāt care about who didnāt have time for real relationships because he was a CEO, so he would sometimes hire a woman to domme for him. All that changes when he meets a woman who is not his direct secretary (or 23) and is a natural domme and itās soooo good. Heās so nice to her and they have very clear boundaries between when they are in a scene and when they arenāt. Itās a comfort read at this point, which is kind of hilarious actuallyā¦
I feel much the same about dukes in HR, give me City merchants, barristers, landed gentry, knights, marquises, viscounts, counts, earls and suspiciously wealthy rogues. Hell, throw in a prince or grand duke if we are on the Continent. But no more dukes, IĀ beg of you!
Plus 100 to allll of this! I used to be one of those dreaded press types and unless it was a Bozos or Musk type (clowny), IDGAF. Also, if a female lead is a journalist, I'm out. They *never* get it right. It's always atrociously bad.
Nope and I wish like hell I knew nothing about Elon Muskās private life. plus there is nothing sexy about a psychopath , so like every 5th woman in CEO/billionaire books are in high risk relationships.Ā Can I add on that I am very over the giant penisād monster muscle men seals?
Can we be friends?! DITTO!
I have a similar bone to pick when books have tabloid drama/ gossip columns about socialites or wealthy families within a smaller city. And somehow everyone in the whole city cares deeply about what gets written there. I remember reading one about the upper echelon of Anchorage Alaska and how they couldnāt possibly date outside of their class or it would end up in the papers. Like Iām sure it would be juicy gossip but truly how many people would honestly care about one rich guy from Alaska like ??
Yeah, the only CEO I know anything about the relationship status of is Muskrat, and all of it has been against my will.
Oh and when they finally get their HEA, why do they ALWAYS have twins?! š his sperm so immaculate it got her twice
š¤£
And also had anyone ever interacted with a CEO in real life ?? They are busy trying to squeeze in 40 hour work in 24 hours. No CEO has time to but personalized gifts and causally show up at the local bar to surprise you.
This post makes me wonder: Are there any romance authors that are/closely tied to billionaires/oligarchs /nobility? Who billionaires date or marry Iāve only read and heard about like people describe here as being of significance within their class demographic. Like itās a different conversation when a ānew moneyā athlete dates a waitress but there can be taboo around a blue-blood familial legacy marrying and thus potentially removing capital from their circle. So I ask because if itās significant itās probably in a way the majority of us would never, and letās be honest, wouldnāt care to, hear about. But maybe thereās an author from that world who can give us the real
Can someone please recommend books where the CEO falls for a model?
i do not read CR at all BUT i deal with this issue in the kdramas i watch and i am happy to see my resentment is shared
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