Gilmore Girls: How Old Lorelai Is At The Beginning & End

Lorelai Gilmore is one of the two characters at the heart of Gilmore Girls, but how old is she when the series begins, and what’s her age when it came to an end both for the first time and in Netflix’s revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life? Played by Lauren Graham, it’s Lorelai and her relationship with daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) that dominates the show, providing much of its warmth, humor, and drama. At the same time, the show charts her own individual journey and growth across its original seven seasons and subsequent Netflix mini-series, from her will they/won’t they relationship with Luke Danes (Scott Patterson) to her often strained one with her mother, Emily (Kelly Bishop).

Lorelai’s relationship with her parents is particularly difficult because of events that happened long before those of the show. Lorelai fell pregnant with Rory when she was just 16-years-old, and opted to leave home to raise her alone. That’s the backdrop for so much of what happens in Gilmore Girls, but just how many years later do the events of the series pick-up, and how many years of Lorelai’s life does the entire show span?

When Gilmore Girls season 1 aired in 2000, Lorelai was 32-years-old, with her daughter, Rory, now 16. The ages of the two were important, since making Rory the same age her mother was when she had her allowed for the show to explore the contrast between their two lives and different experiences growing up. When Gilmore Girls came to an end for the first time, after season 7 in 2007, Lorelai was 39-years-old, with each season of Gilmore Girls spanning from the latter half of one year (generally around the time of Rory going back to school/college) and ending just before the summer. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life picks up around 10-years later, with Lorelai (whose birthday is in April) 48-years-old for the majority of it. That brings things full circle, with Rory at this point the same age Lorelai was when the series started.

Lorelai’s birthday is never given too much focus in Gilmore Girls, and is only actually celebrated on-screen once – in the season 3 episode “Happy Birthday, Baby”, in which Rory gets the town to make the largest pizza Stars Hollow has ever seen. In that episode, which aired in 2003, it’s specifically mentioned that Lorelai is turning 35-years-old (though her father, Richard (the late Edward Herrmann), mistakingly thinks she’s going to be 36). At the same time, Rory orders her a cake that jokingly reads “Happy 16th Birthday, Lorelai.”

Lorelai’s actress Lauren Graham is extremely close to her character, and that goes for her age too: Graham was born in March 1967, meaning she’s just one-year-older than Lorelai. Of course, Lorelai may not necessarily always act her age, while she also makes the choice to become a parent for a second time at the age of 48 during A Year in the Life, but how old she is contrasted to Rory, and their differences at those ages, is an important part of their relationship in Gilmore Girls.

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