How 'Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage' Will Address Controversial Age Gap

Young Sheldon‘s Georgie and Mandy got their happy ending — and a spinoff series — but that doesn’t mean their controversial age gap won’t go unaddressed on screen.

During separate interviews, Rachel Bay Jones and Montana Jordan exclusively told Us Weekly about how Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage found ways to acknowledge the major detail regarding the main couple.

“It is interesting because [Mandy’s mother] Audrey is a lot of audience members. A lot of fans are like, ‘What the hell? He’s 10 years younger than she is. This is wrong,'” Jones, 54, pointed out about how Georgie was 17 (and pretending to be older) while Mandy was 29 when they initially started dating. “Audrey is the one who agrees that this is wrong and this should not be happening.”

Jones offered a glimpse into her character‘s state of mind when Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage kicks off, adding, “[Audrey] has got a successful intelligent adult daughter and [Mandy] just married a kid and had a baby with him. There’s a lot of Audrey that can say what the audience might be wanting to say sometimes.”

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Meanwhile, Jordan, 21, explained why the discussion benefits his character.

“It gives Georgie somewhere to go,” he noted to Us. “In this new show, Georgie finally gets to show that he’s not just this dumb kid. He actually does have a brain on him. And on Young Sheldon I’m sure he got overlooked a lot. Maybe him being the tire king is his way of showing and proving people that he is not this dumb kid [but a mature adult]. He actually has some brains on him.”

The Big Bang Theory, which aired from 2007 to 2019, introduced a group of friends made up of scientists and their significant others. The show’s success spanned the CBS prequel series Young Sheldon, which followed Sheldon (Iain Armitage) as a child prodigy growing up in Texas.

Along the way, fans met Sheldon’s brother, Georgie, and subsequently got invested in his love story with Mandy. Young Sheldon came to an end in 2024 — but the franchise continued to expand. Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which premieres on Thursday, October 17, follows the couple as they balance marriage and parenthood after moving in with Mandy’s parents. It is important to note, however, that some viewers have still questioned the 12-year age gap.

“It will be fun for us to watch how this marriage wins Audrey over,” Jones teased to Us. “[It will happen] as the marriage wins the fans over.”

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There’s also the fact that according to various episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Georgie was said to have two ex-wives. Osment previously said she hoped the spinoff would find a way to undo at least one story line mentioned in TBBT.

“I’m hoping that I’m the ex-wife and the new wife,” she told TVLine in May. “People get divorced and remarried. Why can’t she be both?”

Jones — and Jordan — are on the same page as Osment about how Georgie and Mandy could overcome the odds.

“I really hope Audrey doesn’t break them up. We’re all hoping that Georgie and Mandy will have a second marriage and a third marriage and that it will always be with each other,” Jones shared. “Because you can see the relationship is so good. It’s so delicious what they’ve written, the actors are so good together and you really can see the love and the friendship. It’s a really nice relationship to watch develop. What’s so great that they’ve done is write these real scenarios when it comes to marriage. So it’ll be fun to see how they explore all of that in the future.”

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage airs on CBS Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.