History Main / PracticallyDifferentGenerations

* ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'': Marion Paroo is a grown woman considered an OldMaid by 1912 standards (probably in her late 20s), while her brother Winthrop is only ten years old.

* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'': The seven Von Trapp children range in age from sixteen to five. This was TruthInTelevision for the family; in real life, Maria and the Captain went on to have three more children, and all the original seven were in their twenties or late teens by the time their youngest half-sibling was born.

* Franchise/SpiderMan's Aunt May and Uncle Ben are often depicted as looking a couple of decades older than his biological parents, his father, Richard, being Ben's brother.

* During the final verse of Music/TraceAdkins' AgeProgressionSong "You're Going to Miss This," the plumber working on the protagonist's water heater, responds to her frantic apologies that her restless children's tantrums don't faze him. As he is a father of two children himself, whom he mentions are now 36 and 23 years old respectively.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

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* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': ''ComicBook/WonderGirl'' Cassie Sandsmark is several thousand years younger than her half-siblings like [[ComicBook/HerculesUnbound Hercules]], Ares and Athena, whom their father Zeus fathered in antiquity. Like in Myth/ClassicalMythology, it's a consequence of Zeus both being immortal [[ReallyGetsAround and never keeping it in his pants]]. [[spoiler:In the ComicBook/New52, Wonder Woman herself has this role due to Zeus being her father, with Cassie becoming the daughter of one of his demigods instead.]]

* PracticallyDifferentGenerations/LiveActionFilms

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Josh Framm from ''Film/AirBud'' is twelve years old while his younger sister Andrea is around one to two years old. He later gets a half-brother named Noah who is a whopping twenty years younger, give or take a few.
* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'': Ally Vinnyard, who is only a LivingProp in the film, is about 7 years old. Her siblings are much older than her, with Derek being in his early to mid-twenties, Davina being in her late teens to early twenties, and Danny being in his mid- to late teens.
* In ''Film/TheBachelorAndTheBobbySoxer'', Creator/MyrnaLoy is the older sister to Creator/ShirleyTemple, despite a 22-year age gap. The reason for that decision is probably because they're in a LoveTriangle with Creator/CaryGrant and having a mother and daughter in a triangle would be too much {{Squick}}.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': Marty [=McFly=]'s mother Lorraine, who is 17 in 1955 and the eldest of five siblings, is 16 years older than her youngest brother Joey as well as another sibling who isn't born yet.
* ''Film/BlackPanther'': T'Challa's exact age is not given, but he is likely in his early to mid-thirties. (His actor, Creator/ChadwickBoseman, was in his early ''40s'' at the time of filming.) His younger sister Comicbook/{{Shuri}} is 16 years old.
* ''Film/BlairWitch'': James Donahue is revealed [[spoiler:to be the younger brother of Heather from the original ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''. The events of the 2016 film takes place twenty years after the events of the first film when Heather was 22. James is 24 in the film's current timeline, thus making him at least 20 years younger than Heather.]]
* In ''Film/CheaperByTheDozen'', Nora Baker, the eldest of the [[MassiveNumberedSiblings twelve children]], is a 22-year-old adult who has left home and lives with her boyfriend. The youngest Baker children, twins Kyle and Nigel, are about five or six years old (their dad Tom ''finally'' got a vasectomy after the twins were born). All the other kids fall somewhere in between the nearly two-decade age gap.
* In ''Film/CrazyStupidLove'', a large age gap sets up a plot twist. Jacob, who is in his late twenties, knows that Cal has two children, a thirteen-year-old son and a younger daughter. He does not find out that [[spoiler:Cal also has a much ''older'' daughter, Hannah -- the woman Jacob is dating --]] until much later.
* ''Film/Dune2021'': Paul is around fifteen years old, if not slightly older [[note]]his age isn't specified in the film and Creator/TimotheeChalamet was in his twenties; in the book he's stated to be fifteen[[/note]]. Using his powers of foresight, Paul realizes [[spoiler:his mother is several weeks pregnant with her second child, meaning his future sibling will be over a decade younger than him, potentially bordering on two decades younger]].
* ''Film/{{Elf}}'': Buddy is a man in his early thirties, while his paternal half-brother Michael is 12. The fairly large age gap was the result of their father Walter unknowingly impregnating his girlfriend during college, and then marrying a different woman several years later.
* ''Film/EnolaHolmes'' is a sixteen-year-old girl, while her brothers are middle-aged career men. This is plot-relevant, as because they have been away from home for so long, they are initially not interested in acting as close-knit guardian figures and would prefer to ship her OffToBoardingSchool.
* ''Film/FatherOfTheBride1991'': In the first movie, Annie Banks is twenty-two years old. Her younger brother Matty is eight years old. By the time their younger sister Megan is born [[spoiler:on the same night as Annie's son]] in the sequel, Matty is twelve years old.
* ''Film/Halloween2007'': Judith and Michael Myers are 16 and 10 years older than their [[spoiler:younger sister Laurie Strode/Angel Myers. Shortly after Michael killed Judith, Judith's boyfriend, and their stepfather Ronnie, their mother Deborah gave the infant Angel up for adoption and committed suicide. Angel's new adopted parents renamed her Laurie and were never informed of her tragic past. Thus she has no knowledge of her biological siblings until an escaped Michael comes charging into her life.]]
* ''Film/HereComesTheBoom'': Despite being in their late forties, Marty Streb's wife Mollie is pregnant with another child. That unborn child in particular is 22 years younger than their unseen older brother.
* ''Film/HollowInTheLand'': Brandon is stated to be 17 years old, while his older sister Allison seems to be in her thirties. There is enough of an age difference between them that Allison is dating the mother of Brandon's girlfriend.
* ''Film/JohnnyKapahalaBackOnBoard'': Subverted because it's step-family, but when Johnny's grandfather gets married to a younger woman (she's around the same age as Johnny's dad), Johnny gets a new "uncle" younger than him.
* ''Film/Joker2019'': Arthur Fleck believes himself to the illegitimate son of Thomas Wayne. If this is true, then Fleck (implied to be in his early thirties) would be over 20 years older than his half-brother Bruce (who is only 10). [[spoiler:Subverted, as it turns that Fleck's mother Penny was a StalkerWithACrush to the older Wayne. She was fired from Wayne Enterprises for that particular reason. Penny then deluded herself into thinking that Wayne was Fleck's father.]]
* In the family sports comedy ''Film/KickingAndScreaming'', the main character Phil Weston's son is born on the same day as his father's son with his second wife. Thus, the audience is treated to ridiculous scenarios such as Phil's 10 year old half-brother repeatedly calling him "bro" and him asserting himself over Phil's son on the grounds that he's his uncle.
* In ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', Sarah is sixteen years old while her younger half-brother Toby is still a baby and has only just started to toddle. As a result, Sarah is often tasked with caring for him while her father and stepmother are out, which she resents. However, when Toby's kidnapped by goblins, Sarah's BigSisterInstinct kicks in and she sets out to rescue him.
* ''Film/LightsOut2016'': Their ages aren't specified, but Rebecca is probably somewhere in her late twenties to early thirties (her actress, Creator/TeresaPalmer, was 29 at the time of filming). Her maternal half-brother, Martin, on the other hand, is maybe around 8 to 10 years old (his actor, Gabriel Bateman, was 10). Through most of the film, Rebecca is battling with their mutual mother for custody over Martin.
* ''Film/Music2021'': Kazu (InUniverse age unspecified, Creator/KateHudson being in her thirties at the time of filming) and her half-sister Music (Creator/MaddieZiegler was a teenager at the time of filming) have an age gap of at least a decade between them.
* ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'': Napoleon is 16 years old, while his ManChild of an older brother Kip is 32. Evidently, large sibling age gaps are quite the tradition in Napoleon's family, as the brothers' uncle Rico seems to be no more than approximately 7 to 10 years older than Kip.
* ''Film/TheProposition'': Mikey, the youngest of the Burns brothers (a family-led gang of bushrangers that prowl the outback of colonial Australia), is 14 years old. His older brothers, Arthur and Charlie, are likely in their mid-twenties to early thirties.
* ''Film/{{Quints}}'': Jamie is fourteen years old when her mother gives birth to [[TooManyBabies quintuplets]].
* In ''Film/{{Sorcerers}}'', Ivan (InUniverse age unspecified, the actor being twenty-nine at the time) has a little sister Nina (age unspecified, the actress being nine). At first, she seems like an AnnoyingYoungerSibling, insisting she'll accompany him for his romantic evening with his fiancée and later sneaking after him when he goes to said fiancée's rescue. However, she is very quick-thinking, while her brother is badly affected by LoveMakesYouStupid, and she ends up helping him a lot.
* In ''Film/StandByMe'' and the original novella that inspired it, Gordie and his late older brother Denny are separated by a ten-year age gap. Their relationship is portrayed as distant in the book (the age gap renders Denny "just a guy"), but in the movie, Denny is painted as having been a kindly older brother who encouraged Gordie's writing. Gordie's parents (noted in the narrative as old enough to be his grandparents) have ignored him since Denny's death. It's given more focus in the novella that Denny was a miracle baby for his parents, who had believed themselves infertile, so he was the object of ParentalFavoritism; Gordie, on the other hand, was not planned and is TheUnfavorite.
* ''Film/SuperMarioBros'': In contrast to the videogames (where they're fraternal twins), Mario's middle-aged while Luigi appears to be in his early 20s--in fact, it's stated that [[PromotionToParent Mario was the one who raised Luigi after their parents died]] (and Luigi was apparently too young to really remember their parents, as he claims that Mario's the only parental figure he really remembers).
* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': Hela's age is not given in the films, but she is considerably older than her 1,500-year-old brother Thor. This can be inferred from the facts that he was unaware of her existence prior to the events of ''Thor Ragnarok'', and that Hela was old enough to be a powerhouse in her own right before Thor and Loki's births.
* ''Film/ThisIs40'': Both Pete and Debbie's fathers have remarried and sired children who are much younger than them. In Pete's case, his half-brothers are actually younger than his and Debbie's own children.
* At beginning of ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes'', Ceaser's oldest son Blue Eyes is a married young adult and his youngest son Cornelius is a toddler. [[spoiler:After the deaths of his entire family, Cornelius was adopted by his widowed sister-in-law Lake.]]
* ''Film/WhatToExpectWhenYoureExpecting'': Skyler and Ramsay's twins are young enough to be their older brother Gary's children, and are indeed the same age as— and share a birthday with — their nephew.
* ''Film/WildThings'': A plot point that was left on the [[DeletedScene cutting room floor]] revealed that [[spoiler:Sandra Van Ryan's late father, a notorious philanderer, is also Suzie's father. This makes Suzie and Sandra half-sisters, even though Sandra is a woman roughly in her 40s and Suzie is a teenager ([[DawsonCasting played by a 20-something actress]]). Being a Van Ryan bastard also gives Suzie more plausible motivation for feeling entitled to a considerable part of the Van Ryan family fortune.]]
* The tendency of the prequel [[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men films]] to set each film a decade apart leads to this with the Summers brothers. Havok is older and is a teenager in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' in the 60s, while Cyclops is a similar age when introduced in ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' in the 80s.
* In ''Film/YouveGotMail'', Creator/TomHanks's character Joe has a 4-year-old half-brother. He also has an 11-year-old aunt, his grandfather's daughter with a younger woman.
* In ''Film/TheHarderTheyFall2021,'' this is a result of the main plot's reveal; everyone knows Rufus murdered Nat's parents when Nat was ten years old, but he finds out WHY at the climax. [[spoiler: Rufus' father used to be an abusive drunk, and he murdered his wife in a rage when Rufus was ten years old. When Rufus found him years later to get revenge, [[StartingANewLife he was sober and kind, with a second wife and son]].]]
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* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', Antonio is five years old. His two siblings and three cousins are between ten and fifteen years older than him.

More often this is because they're half-siblings, with the younger sibling being the result of a MayDecemberRomance on their shared father's part. Or they're full-blooded siblings, but one was born early into their parents' relationship (likely a TeenPregnancy) and the latter in their late 30s/40s, maybe even 50s with an AbsurdlyElderlyMother. Or long after having their first kid, the parents chose to adopt(or vice versa; parents who are having trouble having kids might adopt a child then later succeed in giving birth).

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Happens very often in ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** At the time of Mia Fey's death at the start of the second case, she was 27 and her younger sister Maya was 17.
** There's an age gap of more than 15 years between Pearl Fey and her half-sister[[spoiler:s Dahlia and Iris]].
** In ''Rise From The Ashes'', Lana Skye is a 29-year-old public prosecutor, and her younger sister Ema is 16.
** Simon Blackquill and his older sister Aura are, at the time of ''Dual Destinies'', 28 and 37.
** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', near the end of the game, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Nahyuta and Rayfa]], who are 25 and 14 years old, respectively, are siblings.
** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', Barok van Zieks' older brother Klint was 33 [[PosthumousCharacter at the time of his death 10 years before the start of the story]], the same age Barok is at the start of the story.
* The mermaid sisters Zelbess and Irenes in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' are far enough apart in age that Zelbess's son is three years older than Irenes.
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'': As with all other tropes involving royalty, this one is very possible and capable of being exaggerated to the extreme. A male character can marry and sire their first child at the age of 16 and remains fertile (though decreasingly so) for their entire life, meaning a child from a later marriage (or a concubine) can born around the same time as a great-great-grandchild from the line of their first child (meaning said first child is a great-grandparent around the birth of their youngest sibling).
** [[VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII The second game]] introduces immortal characters, who can keep producing children [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit as long as their current living children do not exceed ten]]. Becoming immortal at the earliest possible time (around 770 CE) means the ability to produce around 48 generations of children before the game ends in 1453.
* ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'': Haiji and Monaca Towa are half-siblings. Haiji is an adult while Monaca is in elementary school.
* There's a 376-year difference between Laharl and his little sister Sicily in ''VideoGame/DisgaeaD2ABrighterDarkness''. That said, it's actually something of a subversion due to ''VisualNovel/DisgaeaInfinite'' establishing that [[YearInsideHourOutside time passes differently in the Netherworld]], making the age gap technically closer to 4 years (which would also help to explain how their human mother lived so long).
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', if [[spoiler:Loghain]] is recruited to be a Grey Warden near the end of the game and is selected to do the Dark Ritual, [[spoiler:his child by Morrigan is thirty years younger than his daughter Anora]].
** The most extreme example seen thus far in the series is revealed in the tie-in comic ''The Silent Grove.'' [[spoiler:The heroes meet Yavana, a daughter of the Witch of the Wilds Flemeth (whose lifespan goes back several ages). Yavana figures into Antivan legends dating back as far as the Exalted Age, as some believe she was responsible for the death of Queen Madrigal. This would make Yavana ''at least'' 400 years older than her half-sister Morrigan, who is first introduced as a companion in ''Origins''.]]
** Gaspard and Florianne de Chalons, cousins of Empress Celene who are first encountered in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', are brother and sister. Supplemental material reveals that Gaspard is thirteen years older than Florianne, and has doted on her since she was a little girl.
** In the background of the game's predominant religion, the resident CrystalDragonJesus Andraste had two daughters very late in her mortal marriage to the Alamarri warlord Maferath. These two daughters were much younger than their three older half-brothers, Maferath's sons by his concubine, who were already young men when the girls were born. (Part of the reason Maferath had a concubine was to have children -- it had been believed that Andraste was too frail to have a successful pregnancy -- so the daughters were a surprise.)
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, this is common for children among the LongLived species of Mer (Elves). Mer age similarly to the races of Men [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty until early adulthood]], at which point their aging slows considerably. While subject to an ImmortalProcreationClause which limits the overall number of children a Mer woman can have (with few having more than three), they apparently remain fertile for hundreds of years. A prominent example is Barenziah, Queen and later Queen Mother of Morrowind and Wayrest. As a teenager, she had an affair with [[GodEmperor Emperor]] [[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber Septim]], which resulted in a pregnancy. Since a child with a Dunmeri mistress would be incredibly inconvenient to Septim and his nascent empire, he ordered his healer to magically abort the child. Barenziah would later marry Septim's Dunmeri general, Symmachus, and have two children with him -- Helseth (King of Morrowind during the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind eponymous game]] and Morgiah -- some 350 years after conceiving with Septim. Around 20 years later, she would also birth an illegitimate child with a mysterious figure known as the "Nightingale", later revealed to be Drayven Indoril; the child was Dralsi Indoril, mother of Karliah from ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', Ramza (18) and Alma (17) are much younger than their half-siblings Zalbag (28) and Dycedarg (37) at the start of the game.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', Oscar is twenty-four while his youngest brother Rolf is twelve and hasn't even learned how to fight yet when the game starts. Oscar and his middle brother Boyd [[PromotionToParent basically raised Rolf themselves]] after Rolf's mother (Oscar and Boyd's stepmother) ran off and their father died of an illness.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', one of the main characters, Micaiah, was [[VagueAge either an infant or a toddler]] during the Serenes Massacre 23 years before the start of the game, and finds out late in the game that [[spoiler:The Empress of Begnion, Sanaki, is her younger sister. Sanaki is 13 years old.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', Seteth is an adult and an official at the Garreg Mach monastery, while his younger sister Flayn is young enough to be a student. [[spoiler:In reality, the two are father and daughter, but Seteth claims that they are siblings with a large age gap in order to conceal their identities.]]
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'': Kratos once had a daughter called Calliope before being tricked into OffingTheOffspring by Ares. Centuries later, in the era of Myth/NorseMythology, he's raising a son called Atreus. Kratos himself would also likely be an example, given that his father is Zeus, [[ReallyGetsAround who's been siring gods and demigods]] for thousands of years.
* Elli the nurse in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature'' is a young woman of marriageable age. Her younger brother Stu looks about 5-6 at most.
* While the characters' ages in ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' aren't specified, the age gap between Sherry Allen (a working young adult) and her brother Jerry (an elementary schooler) is ''very'' obvious, especially when compared to the other sibling pairs in the game.
* This is revealed to be the case in ''VideoGame/HeroOfTheKingdom II'' when the hero learns that [[spoiler:the pirate captain Black Rose is his own long-lost older brother. The brother, whose real name is not given, left home at the age of 12 to earn money to support the family; the hero at that time was only three. Their younger sister had not yet been born, so this trope is in play for her and the oldest brother, who is at least a dozen years older than she is.]]
* ''VisualNovel/HighwayBlossoms''
** Tess is eleven (turning twelve in ''[[DownloadableContent Next Exit]]''), while her sister Mariah is old enough to drink, and thus probably at least 21. Mariah implies that she and Tess are half-siblings with the same mother.
** Marina, who's 18, has a five-year-old younger brother, meaning that there's a 13-year age gap between those two. Since Marina's only the middle of [[MassiveNumberedSiblings nine siblings]], there's presumably a much larger age gap between her youngest and eldest siblings.
* ''Videogame/TheLastOfUs'': Henry and Sam. Henry is 25, and Sam is around twelve or so. Given the post-apocalyptic setting and the fact that they don't look much alike, it's possible that they're actually half-brothers (something that Henry's voice actor [[WordOfSaintPaul has suggested]]) or blood-brothers. Either way, they are on their own and Henry is Sam's caretaker, with this gap in age resulting in Henry being overprotective to the point where he doesn't teach Sam how to defend himself, unlike how Joel did with Ellie. This comes back to bite him [[spoiler:(literally), when Sam is bitten and infected, resulting in Henry having to MercyKill him, then [[DrivenToSuicide turning the gun on himself]] in despair.]]
* ''VideoGame/LaterAlligator'':
** Pat and his brother Lorenzo are in their twenties, while their sister Angelface is an infant.
** Skids Valentino is 11, while his twin older siblings are 25.
* Implied in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Liara T'soni begins the series at the age of 106, "barely more than a child" by [[LongLived asari]] standards. Liara's father, another [[OneGenderRace asari]], also states that she had at least one other daughter prior to her relationship with Liara's mother. Since Liara's parents were together for more than a century, and Liara was born after her parents had broken up, this means that when Liara was born, her half-sister was at least as old as Liara is during the series. Given their shared parent's advanced age, as an asari Matriarch, it's likely the difference is even greater than that.
* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', Kou Ichijo was adopted into the Ichijo family due to their being unable to have a child until they finally succeeded. At the start of the game, Kou is a second-year in high school, and thus about 16, while his sister is two.
* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', crew member Polly's husband Robinson has been missing for twenty years, with Polly raising their daughter Anne alone for all that time. If Robinson is recruited, his entry in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue notes that he and Polly go on to have ten more children, all of whom are obviously ''much'' younger than their sister Anne.
* Implied in ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons2014'', where it's mentioned that Iris (one of the bachelorettes) had a PromotionToParent for her younger brother Mistel after their parents died. It's not clear how old either of them are exactly, but it's implied that Iris is around the same age as her good friend Klaus, who is in his thirties; Mistel is old enough for marriage so he's presumably in his late teens or maybe early twenties.
* In ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', nineteen-year-old Hawkeye's two best friends are Eagle and Jessica, who are around the same age. The prequel, ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMana'', reveals that Eagle and Jessica are the much younger half-siblings of Hawkeye's mother, Falcon. Only Flamekhan, who is Hawkeye's grandfather and Falcon, Eagle, and Jessica's father, is aware of this.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/Encanto'', Antonio is five years old. His two siblings and three cousins are between ten and fifteen years older than him.

* [[PracticallyDifferentGenerations/AnimeAndManga Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', the twins Sam and David are born during their eldest brother Matt's first year of college. Mom Annie actually revealed her pregnancy to dad Eric at Matt's high school graduation.
* In ''Series/AnneWithAnE'', this applies to Mary's children. She had Elijah when she was very young and had Delphine years later after marrying Bash. Elijah was already a young adult by the time Delphine was born.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
** While her birth year is not known, Talia al Ghul is OlderThanSheLooks thanks to the Lazarus Pit, and is seen as a young girl in 1958. Her younger half-sister, Nyssa, was born in 1985, so they are three decades apart.
** Oliver Queen's children fit this. His son, William, was born in 2006, while his daughter, Mia, was born in 2019, meaning they are thirteen years apart.
* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'': Erin Silver is born the summer before her elder half-siblings Kelly and David's senior year at West Beverly (when Kelly is around 17 and David is around 16). When Erin herself starts going to West Beverly in the sequel series, Kelly's a guidance counselor there.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Shortly after [[spoiler:his mother's death]], Howard, who is in his thirties, is visited by a twenty-something young man named Josh who turns out to be his paternal half-brother.
* On ''Series/{{Blackish}}'', [=DeVante=] is born as his eldest sister Zoey is heading off to college. In fact, all of his siblings are about a decade or so older than him.
* ''Series/BobHeartsAbishola'': Bob Wheeler is 50 years old at the beginning of the series. There's a twelve-year age gap between him and his fraternal twin siblings Douglas and Christina, who are only 38. It's mentioned that Bob dropped out of college following his father's untimely passing in order to help his mother take care of the twins.
* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'': Cory's younger brother Josh is born when Cory is in his first year of college and elder brother Eric is in his twenties. In the SequelSeries ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', Josh is only three years older than Cory's daughter Riley and becomes a love interest for her best friend Maya.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'':
** Walter and Skyler White have a baby girl Holly, who’s 17 years younger than their son Walter Jr.
** Jesse Pinkman is in his mid-twenties while his younger brother Jake is 14.
* ''Series/ChicagoFire'': Sylvie Brett was born when her birth mom Julie was 16 and flashforward thirty years later Julie ended up pregnant at 46 which is slim chances of reproducing at that age. She later gives birth to Sylvie's half-sister Amelia.
* An episode of ''Series/ChicagoMed'' features a recently retired couple with a grown son who come to the hospital because the wife is having unexplained stomach pains. It turns out she’s in labour. At the end of the episode their son shows up with his wife and daughter who is a year older than her own aunt.
* ''Series/TheCosbyShow'': Rudy Huxtable is about fifteen years younger than her oldest sibling Sondra. She's still in elementary school when Sondra gets married and gives birth to twins. She's also eleven years younger than Denise, her second oldest sibling. At the beginning of the second season, Denise starts 12th grade while Rudy starts 1st grade.
* In ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'', Deet appears to be much older than her little brother Bobb'N. Their exact ages aren't given, but Deet appears to be in her late teens or early twenties by human standards, while Bobb'N is clearly a child who is only just learning to talk properly and still uses BabyTalk at times.
* ''Series/DerryGirls'': Erin Quinn is about fifteen years older than her LivingProp sister Anna.
* On ''Series/DesigningWomen'', Julia Sugarbaker is twelve years older than her "baby sister" Suzanne, and multiple episodes indicate that Julia helped to raise Suzanne. (One episode reveals that they also have a half-brother, from a relationship their father had when their parents were separated, who is roughly halfway between them in age.)
* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': Susan and Mike's son MJ is about eighteen years younger than Susan's daughter Julie and Mike's son Zach. Julie is also eighteen years older than her other half brother Evan from her father Karl's second marriage.
** By the time Tom and Lynette's youngest child Paige is born, Porter and Preston are college aged, Parker is a teenager, and Penny is eleven years old. Paige is also over twenty years younger than Tom's daughter Kayla from a previous relationship. [[spoiler: At the end of the series, Porter and Julie have a daughter, making Paige an aunt at around three years old.]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Hinted at; while the Doctor is never seen having any children on-screen, by the First Doctor's introduction he already had a grandchild in Susan Foreman, and the Tenth Doctor does confirm to Rose in one episode that "I was a dad once." He ends up being a TrulySingleParent as the Tenth Doctor, multiple centuries and lifetimes later, with Jenny in "The Doctor's Daughter." Even by [[LongLived Time Lord standards]], the gap between the two would be enormous.
* This seems to be a case with some of the members of the Dingle family in ''Series/{{Emmerdale}}''. Although the ages of Zak's children are not mentioned or developed, his daughter Belle (who was born in 1998) has six half-siblings who were mostly adults when they arrived on the show before or after she appeared. Cain, for example, continues to look a whole generation older than her when she was a teenager (there's even a 27-year age difference between Belle and Cain's actors).
* ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'': In season 4, Joe West conceives a daughter with Cecile Horton, named Jenna. By this time, Joe's children from his previous marriage are both adults; Iris is pushing thirty while Wally is in his early twenties.
* ''Series/FullerHouse'':
** DJ's oldest son Jackson is about eleven years older than her youngest son Tommy.
** Jesse and Rebecca's adopted daughter Pamela is at least twenty years younger than their twins Nicky and Alex.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** At the start of the series, Robb Stark and Jon Snow are around 17 to 18 years old, while their youngest brother Rickon Stark is around six years old, making for a gap of eleven years.
** [[spoiler:Jon Snow]] is the secret child of Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys Targaryen's famed older brother. [[spoiler:Jon Snow]] and Daenerys are about the same age, despite being nephew and aunt. Daenerys wasn't even born when [[PosthumousSibling Rhaegar died]] and he was already an adult with two young children (who also died before Dany's birth).
** Ramsay Bolton (nee Snow) is a full-grown man when his father Roose Bolton sires another son early in Season 6. It doesn't last very long since Ramsay feeds the boy (and his stepmother) to his dogs a few minutes after finding out.
* In ''Series/GettingTogether'', Bobby is the legal guardian of his sister Jenny. Jenny is twelve. Bobby's age is never given, although he's stated in one of the tie-in novels to be twenty-three. (Creator/BobbySherman was in his late twenties at the time.)
* On ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', Rory's half-sister Gigi, from her father's marriage, is born when she is a senior in high school. Understandable as Rory's parents were sixteen when she was born.
* ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': At the start of the show, Charlie is nine months old. Her closest-in-age sibling is 10-year-old Gabe, while her eldest siblings Teddy and PJ are in high school. This age gap provides some drama on the show... doubly so, when the Duncan kids' youngest sibling Toby is born later in the series.
* ''Series/{{iCarly}}'': Carly Shay's only known sibling is her older brother, Spencer Shay, who (according to dialogue from the pilot episode) is at least thirteen years older than her. Spencer is Carly's legal guardian for the entire series, due to the fact that their dad, Steven Shay (who's in the Air Force), is stationed overseas and [[AmbiguouslyAbsentParent we never see or hear anything]] [[MissingMom about Carly's mom]][[note]]While Carly and Spencer obviously have the same dad, they could have different moms, which would make them paternal half-siblings--especially since real-life half-siblings tend to have fairly large age differences[[/note]]. Assuming that Carly's mom is around, she's clearly not very involved in her daughter's life, especially since if something were to happen where Spencer couldn't be Carly's guardian, Carly would go live with Steven's dad, who she and Spencer call "Grandad."
** "iBeat the Heat" reveals that Spencer's SitcomArchnemesis, Chuck Chambers (who's a young boy), has an older sister named Gia who's around Spencer's age and he spends most of the episode hitting on her to no avail (largely due to Chuck messing with Spencer when he tries to talk to her).
* ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': The title character is in her late twenties with a child of her own when her father Rogelio fathers his second daughter Baby.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': By the time Elliot "Eli" Stabler Jr. was born, the next-youngest siblings, twins Richard and Elizabeth, were nearly 15 years old.
** The VictimOfTheWeek in one episode is a teenager who was born just as the last of his siblings left for college. His father walked out because he didn't want to go through the process of raising a kid again.
* ''Series/{{Lucifer|2016}}'': The final season reveals that Chloe is pregnant with Lucifer's daughter, Rory. By this time, she already has a teenage daughter, Trixie. Rory is also eternally youthful because she is half-celestial, so Trixie will only look even older than her as time goes on.
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Oldest son Francis is out of the house and married when Lois finds out she's pregnant with Jamie. Reese and Malcolm have already graduated from high school and moved out for college in the finale when Lois finds out she's pregnant again.
* ''Series/ModernFamily'': Jay's stepson Manny is over twenty years younger than his biological kids Claire and Mitchell, and younger than even Claire's kids. Claire and Mitchell are in their thirties by the time Jay and Manny's mother Gloria have Joe, who's even younger than Mitch's daughter. Joe himself is just six years old when he becomes a great-uncle to Hayley and Dylan's [[UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn twins]].
* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': After Adrian Monk's father Jack abandoned him and his family, he started another family some undisclosed amount of years later. In his second family, Jack fathered a third son named Jack Jr. Adrian Monk turned 50 in the last season, while Jack Jr.'s age isn't given but seems to be at least in his mid to late thirties.
* ''Series/MidnightMass2021'': Riley is a man in his thirties. His younger brother Warren is a teenager.
* DoubleSubverted during the last season of ''Series/TheNanny''. When the season starts, Maxwell Sheffield, with his two older children Maggie and Brighton almost in their 20s and his youngest Gracie already becoming a teenager, has since married Fran Fine following years of BelligerentSexualTension. Fran, having always wanted to have children, is excited when she finds out that she's pregnant, but is heartbroken when Maxwell tells her that he doesn't want any more children. It's made worse when she learns that she ''isn't'' really pregnant -- the test provided a false positive. Later that season, Fran gets pregnant for real and Maxwell has since changed his mind about having additional children; the show ends with Fran having fraternal twins.
* In ''Series/OneTreeHill'', Lucas Scott's maternal half-sister Lily is born during Season 4 and is eighteen years younger than him. [[TangledFamilyTree She's also his cousin]], as their fathers were brothers.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'' thanks to interdimensional time passage and the Curse erasing her parents' memories, Emma's younger brother is at least ten years younger than her own son. [[spoiler:Later, HistoryRepeats with Emma's own children: she has a second child named Hope after Henry graduates high school, so they're at least eighteen years apart in age]].
* In ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', [[LovableRogue Derek "Del Boy" Trotter]] is 13 years older than his brother Rodney, and has [[PromotionToParent taken care of Rodney ever since their father walked out on them and their mother died when Rodney was still small]].
* In ''Series/OrphanBlack'', Charlotte is sixteen years younger than all of her sisters. She refers to her niece Kira as her "cousin" because they're so close in age.
* Season 1 of ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' has four of the five Shelby siblings as adults, who run the family betting shop (and street gang). Youngest sibling Finn is barely eleven in the first season, thirteen in the second, and it isn't until Season 4 at approximately fifteen or sixteen that he becomes a full Blinder. In the prior seasons, he's ordered around by the rest of his family and serves as a ButtMonkey for Arthur and John to mock.
* ''Series/{{Reba}}'':
** Cheyenne (seventeen in the first season) is ten years older than Jake (seven in the first season). However, Kyra (twelve in the first season) is in the middle to balance out the difference.
** Later in the first season, Brock and Barbra Jean's son Henry is born. As a result, he's seventeen years younger than Cheyenne and twelve years younger than Kyra. He's also only a few months older than his niece Elizabeth.
* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'':
** In the early seasons, Dan's father Ed has a MayDecemberRomance with Roseanne's best friend Crystal, and they get married. Their son, Ed Junior, has this with both of his older half-brothers; Crystal's son Lonnie is a teenager, and Dan is in his ''forties''. One episode even has Dan's daughters, both of whom are older than Lonnie, babysitting the teething infant Ed.
** Later in the series, Roseanne and Dan have a fourth child named Jerry Garcia Conner. He's twenty years younger than Becky, eighteen years younger than Darlene, and fourteen years younger than D.J. He's also only a couple years older than his niece Harris Conner Healy, who's born during Season 9.
* ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager'': Amy is only two years older than her sister, but sixteen years older than her brother, who was born after her own TeenPregnancy, making him younger than his nephew John.
* ''Series/ShamelessUS'': Fiona and Liam seem to be about twenty years apart, and she acts as a ParentalSubstitute to him.
* ''Series/SixFeetUnder'': At the start of the series, Nate is 35 and David is 31. Their younger sister, Claire, is 17 and doesn't know Nate well specifically because he left home shortly after she was born.
* [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Deanna Troi]]'s mother Lwaxana gets pregnant during the fourth season of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', ultimately giving birth to a son who is about 35 years younger than Deanna.
** In a similar vein, Jake Sisko is twenty years old when his father's second wife gets pregnant.
* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Nancy Wheeler appears to be at least 13 years older then her LivingProp sister Holly.
* ''Series/{{Succession}}'': Logan Roy's son from his first marriage Connor is several decades older than his younger children from his second marriage.
* In ''Series/TedLasso'', the Higginses have five sons. The youngest is in primary school and the eldest is a priest.
* ''Series/TooCute'': Occasionally, examples of this will pop up. {{Justified}} due to the fact that dogs and cats don't actually go through menopause and can have litters at any point in their lives; moreover, they have much shorter childhoods relative to their overall lifespans than humans.
** The Irish terrier pups have an older brother Gianni from their mother's previous litter. He is the equivalent of a teenager while the puppies themselves are toddler-aged.
** Tonkinese cat Princess and her mother Queenie have their litters within a day of each other, resulting in the former's siblings and children being around the same age.
* On ''Series/TheTudors'', Henry VIII's daughter Mary is in her late teens when her stepmother, Queen Jane Seymour, is pregnant with and gives birth to the future Edward VI. TruthInTelevision; see RealLife below.
* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'': In the sixth season, Judith gets pregnant and gives birth to a daughter named Milly, while Jake is in his mid-teens. Around the time of Milly's conception, Judith and Herb temporarily separated and Judith slept with Alan, only to quickly dump Alan and reconcile with Herb. Therefore, it is unclear whether Milly is Jake's half-sister or his full sister. All signs point to Alan being Milly's father, but the show never confirmed it either way.
* In Season 2 of ''Series/TheWaltons'', Olivia gets pregnant. She loses the baby because she's too old to carry properly; had the child (posthumously named Joy) survived, she would have been 18 years younger than her oldest sibling John-Boy.
[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'': Jonesy Garcia and Jennifer "Jen" Masterson, two of the main characters, become stepsiblings when Jonesy's dad and Jen's mom get married--they eventually gain a mutual half-sister born of that marriage named Emma (after Jen's mom). Jonesy and Jen are both 16 when Emma Junior's born while Jen's older sister, Courtney (Emma Junior's other maternal half-sister), is around 19 (Courtney's about three years older than Jen and Jonesy).
* ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Iroh and Ozai have an undefined but quite large age gap. Iroh had an adult son of his own when Ozai's children were still single-digit aged, and Iroh is once mistaken for the grandfather of Ozai's son rather than his uncle.
** Mai is thirteen years older than her toddler brother, Tom-Tom.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': There's a ten-year age difference between Jinora and her infant brother Rohan (who is born in the first book).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Criminal duo Wrath and Scorn, the {{Evil Counterpart}}s to Batman and Robin, are brothers. William Mallory (Wrath) is an adult who's roughly the same age as Bruce Wayne and Andy Mallory (Scorn) is a tween/early teen around Dick Grayson's age.
* A large age gap between siblings allows for a FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo on ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman''. [[spoiler:[=BoJack=] (in his fifties) initially thinks Hollyhock (eighteen) is his illegitimate daughter]], but it turns out that the two are siblings -- [[spoiler:[=BoJack=]'s father got the maid pregnant late in life]].
* Jay Sherman of ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' is thirty-six, and his adoptive parents also have a biological daughter who's sixteen. Margo is actually closer in age to her nephew Marty than to Jay himself.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': 16-year-old Jane Lane is the youngest of five siblings. Trent is already five years older than her, while their rarely-seen older siblings are all in their late twenties or mid-thirties.
** Jodie [[AllThereInTheManual and her twelve-year-old sister Rachel]] have a newborn brother named Evan.
* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'': Elise is in her late twenties to early thirties. Her brother, Ben, appears to be in his mid to late teens.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': In the first season of the Disney run, Doug's sister Cleopatra "Dirtbike" Funnie is born. She's twelve years younger than Doug and seventeen years younger than Judy.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' has [[spoiler:Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s]] children, as revealed in the GrandFinale. [[spoiler:First there's [[{{Nephewism}} his nephew and niece Donald and Della]] (36); then there's his OppositeSexClone Webby (11-12); and finally Webby's clones May and June (physically the same age as Webby, though they're only a few weeks old at most by the time of their introduction).]]
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': As with most of the main cast, Eddy is 12 years old. Eddy's [[spoiler:abusive]] older brother's precise age is not given, but he is most likely in his early to mid-twenties. This gives them a minimal age gap of ~10 years.
* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': The newest member of the Murphy family, Megan, is fifteen years younger than Kevin and twelve years younger than Bill.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** At the very start of the series, Meg was 16, Chris was 13, and Stewie was an infant. An early episode saw people mistakenly assume [[IsThatCuteKidYours Stewie to be Meg's son]], which she decided to go along with to get pity tips as a waitress. This age gap [[SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome inexplicably]] gets ''wider'' later in the series, as Meg and Chris age up to 18 and 15, [[NotAllowedToGrowUp with Stewie remaining a one-year-old]].
** Even more extreme are Kevin and Susie Swanson, the children of Joe and Bonnie Swanson. Kevin is 25, while his sister Susie is only a year old.
** Due to Quagmire being OlderThanTheyLook and doing AnythingThatMoves without even bothering with birth control, he has multiple illegitimate children with a wide range of ages. Two episodes feature his DoorstepBaby daughter Anna Lee as well as an eighteen-year-old daughter named Courtney, while a CutawayGag reveals he has an adult married son in Madrid, Spain.
* {{Implied}} in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gravity Falls}}:'' In "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E12ATaleOfTwoStans A Tale of Two Stans]]," when Stan and Ford are about 17-18, we see their mom holding a baby. This was probably meant to be [[CainAndAbelAndSeth their other brother Shermie]], Dipper and Mabel's grandfather. Him being so much younger would explain why he plays no larger part in his brothers' backstory, but [[WritersCannotDoMath leads to serious questions about the timeline]], since this scene is set about forty years before he'll have preteen grandkids.
** A common {{Fanon}} explanation is that Shermie is actually older than his brothers, and that the baby is his own child (and thus, presumably, Dipper and Mabel's father). Often this trope is still in play, just switched in the other direction.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatNorth'': Brick Tobin is ten years old. His oldest sibling Wolf is a married man in his twenties.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': Helga Pataki, who's a 9-year-old 4th-grader in the original series, has an older sister named Olga who's off at college -- while it's never confirmed how far apart in age they are, Olga's stated to have been 15 when Helga had her first day of preschool. Since most kids (at least those in the United States) start preschool when they're around 3, this would mean that Olga's at least 12 years older than Helga. Olga's a bright and popular college student who excels at pretty much everything she does ([[ParentalFavoritism and is the one generally favored by their parents]]), so the age gap only strengthens the one-sided rivalry Helga feels.
* Late in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible,'' Ron's parents adopt a Japanese toddler, Hana, while Ron is in his senior year of high school.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Cotton winds up having a baby, G.H., with his much younger wife, giving forty-something Hank a newborn baby half-brother. Later we also find out that Cotton had an AbandonedWarChild named Junichiro, meaning that there's a ''fifty''-year gap between him and G.H.
* The eponymous family of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' have eleven kids, with the oldest child and the youngest child having an age difference of at least 16 years -- however, the kids are pretty evenly spread apart, so all of them have ''some'' similarly-aged siblings (for example, the five oldest kids are each only a year apart in age).
* On one episode of the original run of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'', the babies get to meet Kermit's nephew Robin, who is a tadpole in a fishbowl. The episode clarifies that Robin's mother is Kermit's much older sister, although how much older is not stated.
* Jeremy Johnson of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' is confirmed to be 16 years old. His little sister, Suzy Johnson, appears to be preschool-aged. This means that Jeremy must’ve been a preteen when Suzy was born.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'': Penny Proud is fourteen. Her younger twin siblings Bebe and Cece are a year old. In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyMovie'', Penny is now sixteen, but the twins [[NotAllowedToGrowUp are still the same age]].
* ''Franchise/{{Rugrats}}'':
** In the original [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} 1991 series]], Alyssa Carmichael is thirteen years older than her younger sister Susie.
** In the spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'', Kimi has a half-sister around ten years younger than her from her biological father's second marriage.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E4TheReginaMonologues The Regina Monologues]]" all but outright states that Grandpa Simpson has an AbandonedWarChild named Abbie from his WWII days. Homer's 38 years old, so going by the year that the episode came out (2003), he'd be at least 20 years younger than his long-lost half-sister.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'':
** In the third season, teenager Marco visits Earth after living months in Mewni to discover his mother is pregnant again. He finally moves back in with his parents to meet his newborn sister Mariposa, 15 years his junior, [[IsThatCuteKidYours and his friends keep assuming she's his daughter]].
** ''Literature/TheMagicBookOfSpells'' states that Eclipsa's uncle (her mom's brother), Jushtin, was initially heir to the throne of Mewni, despite the tradition of matrilineal descent, because he had no female siblings. By the time Eclipsa's mother, Solaria, was born and took his place as heir, Jushtin was well into his teens.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Though their exact ages are unknown, Satine and Bo-Katan Kryze are heavily implied to be this. Satine is around the same age as Obi-Wan Kenobi, which would make her 35–38 years old during the series. Bo-Katan appears to be around 20 years old, and is portrayed in ''Series/TheMandalorian'' (which takes place ~30 years later) by the 40-year-old Katee Sackhoff.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Gems don't have relatives in an exact human sense, but Amethyst thinks of the other ones made on Earth (her "Famethyst") like siblings. Because of an error in their BizarreAlienReproduction, she is five ''hundred'' years younger than the rest of them, but [[TheAgeless gems don't age]], [[TimeDissonance so this may as well be nothing]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', it's never stated how far apart in age Bloom and her older sister, Daphne, are--but Daphne appears to have been in her mid to late-teens when Bloom was born ({{Fanon}} generally agrees that Daphne was around 16 when Bloom was born). This is shown both by the fact that she was the one who sent Bloom away and by her Nymph spirit form, which is that of an adult and presumably did not age after her death.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' provides one of the supernatural examples with the immortal Comicbook/VandalSavage. His VillainEpisode focuses on him interacting with two of his daughters, one of whom [[WordOfGod is 18]] and the other who could pass for Savage's mother. The episode also delves into his backstory, revealing that he's had plenty of other kids over the millennia. ([[RelatedInTheAdaptation Including]] [[Comicbook/DoctorFate Nabu]], apparently.)

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', Elfangor was an ''aristh'' (cadet) in the Andalite military by the time his brother Aximili was conceived. [[spoiler:Thanks to time travel shenanigans, Ax is roughly the same age as Elfangor's son.]]
* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Later in the story, the protagonist is being passed off as a nobleman's youngest daughter. When this happens, the protagonist is eight years old and pretending to be seven. She gains three brothers in the form of the nobleman's actual children, the oldest of whom is eighteen years old and winds up guarding her on several of her subsequent adventures because [[spoiler:he's among the few people who know that they actually aren't siblings]].
* In ''Literature/AskAmyGreen'', Amy's mother is 20 years older than her younger sister Clover. Clover is 17, and only 4 years older than her niece Amy.
* In the later installments of the ''Aurora Teagarden Mysteries'', 36-year-old Aurora becomes the legal guardian of her 16-year-old half-brother Philip, after their mutual deadbeat father abandons him. His disappearance and Aurora's attempts to find him is the main conflict of the 10th book ''All the Little Liars''.
* Creator/JaneAusten employed this trope on occasion since it was TruthInTelevision for the time period when couples tended to marry comparatively young, have many children, and lose some as infants or small children.
** In ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', Darcy has a PromotionToParent for his sister Georgiana after their parents die. He is twenty-eight and she is sixteen at the end of the novel, giving them a twelve-year age difference.
*** Also in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', Charlotte Lucas is twenty-seven and the oldest of Sir William and Lady Lucas's ''many'' children; we don't know how old the others are (except for Maria, who is apparently around the same age as Kitty Bennet), but the youngest are implied to be under ten.
** In ''Literature/MansfieldPark'', protagonist Fanny Price's eldest sibling is 19-year-old William and the youngest is 5-year-old Betsey. The other eight Price children are between them in age.
** In ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', the youngest Dashwood child Margaret is around twelve years old. John, her older half-brother, doesn't have his exact age given; but he's older than Elinor, who is stated to be 19 when the story begins, and is married with a child who is not many years younger than Margaret.
** In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'', Frank Churchill is 23 years old when his half-sister Anna Weston is born. His mother was Mr. Weston's first wife, and Anna's mother is Mr. Weston's second wife.
** In the unfinished ''Sanditon'', the eldest Parker is 35-year-old Tom and the youngest is 21-year-old Arthur, and the heroine Charlotte Heywood is 22 years old while her oldest brother is 31. We might have met more of the Heywoods' ''[[MassiveNumberedSiblings fourteen]]'' children had Jane Austen not [[DiedDuringProduction died]].
* Kristy's family in ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' has this. In the first book, her oldest brother Charlie is fifteen and her youngest brother David Michael is five. Later, when Charlie is seventeen, their mother remarries and they gain stepsiblings who are even younger than David Michael, and ''then'' their mother and stepfather adopt a baby girl.
* Inverted in the ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' series, in which young Edwin Gurney and Edwy Bellecote are uncle and nephew respectively, yet look and behave just like brothers.
* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'': The setting makes up for the rarity of men via a form of ExoticExtendedMarriage in which a man marries all the sisters of a family. This can easily result in women who are old enough to get married while their youngest sisters are still children or even yet to be born.
* ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'': Because these series focus on [[SemiDivine the children of gods]], all of the protagonists have this -- for example, one of Percy's half-brothers is Theseus, who died millennia before he was born. On the more mundane side of this, his [[HumanMomNonhumanDad mortal mom]] and stepdad have a daughter, Estelle, late in the series, when Percy is 17.
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Greg Heffley is 12, while his brothers Manny and Rodrick are 3 and 16 respectively. Manny gets treated differently by their parents because he's the youngest.
* In the backstory of the Literature/DollangangerSeries, as revealed in the prequel novel ''Garden of Shadows,'' Malcolm Foxworth's father Garland married a 19-year-old girl, Alicia, and had a second son, Christopher. By the time Christopher was born, Malcolm and his wife Olivia already had two sons of their own. The family tree became a tangled mess from there.
* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'':
** Glossu Rabban was over 60 while his brother Feyd-Rautha was 19. The prequels establish that the Bene Gesserit slipped their parents' fertility drugs to ensure Feyd's birth for their SuperBreedingProgram.
** Less extreme example with Paul Atreides, who is 16 years older than his sister Alia.
* In ''Literature/EarthsChildren'', Joharran is indicated to be much older than his youngest half-siblings Thonolan and Folara; he was already considered an adult when his mother mated Thonolan and Folara's father and when Folara is having First Rites to become a woman (making her a teenager), Joharran is mated with a young child. It's complicated by the fact people in the setting are often considered adults at a younger age than most modern societies, [[note]] Jondalar is considered unusual for still being unmated and having no children at 18 [[/note]] although this still puts at least a decade between Joharran and Thonolan, and more than a decade between Joharran and Folara.
* At fourteen, ''Literature/EnolaHolmes'' is twenty years younger than her older brother Literature/{{Sherlock|Holmes}} and twenty-seven years younger than Mycroft. Because of their large age gap, Sherlock and Mycroft would rather ship her {{off to boarding school}} than act as parental or even brotherly figures.
* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': 17-year-old Augustus has two sisters, a pair of twins who are 11 years older than him. Both of them are married with children of their own. (They are AdaptedOut of TheFilmOfTheBook.)
* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': Victor Frankenstein is a man in his twenties, while his younger brother William is only 6 years old.
* In ''Literature/TheGreatOpposition'', Sima is born after an unplanned pregnancy when her sister Lyudmila is nineteen and her brother Georgy fifteen. As a result, she has never been close to either, and at the start of the novel, when she is still at school, Lyudmila is already married and living separately and Georgy is living and working half a continent away.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': There are seven Weasley siblings, so naturally there is a case of this. The eldest, Bill, is ten years older than Ginny, the youngest. Bill went to Hogwarts a year after Ginny was born. At the start of the series, Bill and Charlie, the two oldest, have graduated from Hogwarts and are leading separate lives; Harry (and the reader) doesn't even meet them until the fourth book.
* In ''Literature/TheHeartstrikers'', Bethesda has had ten clutches over the course of a thousand years, starting when she was a hundred years old (fairly early for a dragoness to lay eggs). As a result, protagonist Julius has brothers and sisters centuries old while he's in his twenties. [[spoiler:While Chelsie's F-clutch were all laid at the same time, the youngest failed to hatch; she kept the egg alive through sheer force of will, and Felicity was ultimately born six hundred years after her brothers and sisters.]]
* In ''Literature/InCryptid'', Angela and Martin Baker adopted three children: Evelyn (born and adopted 1965), Drew (born 1981, adopted 1983), and Sarah (born 1990, adopted 1999). By the time Sarah was adopted, Evelyn already had three children of her own (born 1987, 1990, and 1993)[[note]]who were ''there'' when Angela and Martin found Sarah[[/note]], so Sarah calls them her cousins even though she's technically their aunt.
* The obscure young adult novel ''Sister of the Quints'' has this as its basic premise. Fifteen-year-old Natalie's father and his second wife become the parents of quintuplets Alice, Beth, Craig, Drew, and Emma. The whole novel is about how she is consistently overlooked in favor of the babies, to the point where her father even forgets her birthday because it's so close to theirs.
* In ''Literature/MaryBloodyMary'', Mary is seventeen when her half-sister Elizabeth is born; she's later forced to become Elizabeth's nursemaid. Mary tries not to resent Elizabeth for this, knowing she's innocent in the matter, and feels sorry for Elizabeth when she's also declared illegitimate. Mary finds it hard to believe her adorable three-year-old sister could one day become her enemy as a rival to the throne, but sadly notes in the end that this indeed came to pass. This is at least partly TruthInTelevision; Mary was born in 1516 and Elizabeth was born in 1533, and Mary did come to view Elizabeth has a threat.
* ''Literature/{{Moribito}}'': ''Traveler of the Indigo Road'' reveals that Tugum is three while his surviving half-brother, Chagum, is fifteen. Their deceased half-brother, Sagum, would have been seventeen if he'd survived the ending of ''[[Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit Guardian of the Spirit]]''.
* In ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' series, Mia is a high school student when her mother gives birth to her little half-brother Rocky. She learns of her royal status around the same time as the birth of her little half-sister Olivia.
* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', some of Tabea's half-siblings have children of their own. There is also another one on the way.
* In one chapter of Fazil Iskander's ''Sandro of Chegem'', a mule brought to the funeral of the local DirtyOldMan (one who went OutWithABang at that) notes how ridiculous it is that the deceased one's son from his latest wife is being watched by the man's granddaughter who is thrice his age.
* ''Literature/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'': Tibby's younger siblings Nicky and Katherine are thirteen and fourteen years younger than her.
* In Helen Dunmore's ''Literature/TheSiege'' and its sequel ''Literature/TheBetrayal'', Anna Levin is 17 years older then her brother Kolya. She had a PromotionToParent for him, as their mother died during his birth.
* ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'': Stephanie Edgely (better known by her Taken Name Valkyrie Cain) is 16 when her younger sister Alice is born partway through the series.
** Skulduggery Pleasant was [[WizardsLiveLonger born in 1580]] as the second of ten children, with his older sibling Carver Gallant born in 1573, seven years before him, and his youngest sibling Respair Kempt born in 1602, twenty-two years after him.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Walder Frey is [[DirtyOldMan a peevish old man]] who keeps getting new young wives, with no plan of stopping even in his nineties. As a result, he has children from his later marriages younger than great-grandchildren from his early marriages. There's enough of an age difference that his great-grandson "Black" Walder Frey, [[AFamilyAffair who has a habit of sleeping with his relatives' wives]], is rumored to be the real father of the children Walder had with his seventh wife.
** House Targaryen provide several examples:
*** Both Jaehaerys the Conciliator and his sister-wife, the Good Queen Alysanne, were over a decade younger than their older sister, Rhaena. They were in turn over fifteen years older than their half-siblings, Boremund and Jocelyn Baratheon.
*** Jaehaerys and Alysanne had thirteen children within a period of twenty eight years. The oldest to survive to adulthood, Aemon, was twelve when his fourth younger sister, Saera, was born, and twenty five when the youngest sister, Gael, was born. At the time of her birth, Gael had seven living siblings who were a decade older, and top it off, she was younger than her niece Rhaenys and nephew Viserys (the future Viserys I).
*** Although the age gap between half-siblings Rhaenyra and Aegon II, the main participants of the [[SuccessionCrisis Dance of the Dragons]], was not that wide, Rhaenyra was 10+ years older than Aegon's full siblings Aemond and Daeron. Daeron was the same age as Rhaenyra's eldest son, Jacaerys Velaryon.
*** Aegon IV "The Unworthy" Targaryen was made to marry [[BrotherSisterIncest his sister]] Naerys as a teenager, but ReallyGetsAround into his forties. His heir ([[MamasBabyPapasMaybe unless you believe certain rumors]]) Daeron and youngest bastard Shiera Seastar are at least over 20 years apart in age, and some of his Great Bastards are in the same age group as Daeron's sons (Daeron's eldest son Baelor is the same age as the eldest of the Great Bastards Daemon Blackfyre while Daeron's youngest son Maekar is one year older than another of Aegon's bastards Brynden Rivers). Even if the count is limited only to Aegon's legitimate children, Daeron's younger sister Daenerys (not the one in the books) is 19 years his junior.
*** [[TheCaligula Aerys II Targaryen]] had Prince Rhaegar as a teenager, and his youngest daughter Daenerys was born shortly after his death. This is because Queen Rhaella experienced a series of stillbirths and miscarriages after giving birth to Rhaegar, with only her last two children Viserys and Daenerys surviving to adulthood. Rhaegar already had infant children at this point, meaning that if Rhaenys and Aegon had survived the sack of King's Landing, they'd be older than their aunt Dany. [[spoiler:Indeed, in ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', the person who claims himself to be the long-believed-to-be-dead Prince Aegon is eager to marry Daenerys once he takes the throne. Incest aside, they are part of the same generation.]]
** The current generation of House Stark. Oldest brothers Robb and Jon[[note]]not twins, but paternal half-brothers[[/note]] are eleven years older than their youngest brother Rickon. Robb winds up given a PromotionToParent when their father Ned goes south to become Hand of the King.
** The Baratheon brothers. King Robert and his middle brother Stannis are in their mid-thirties and only a couple years apart, but their youngest brother Renly is in his early twenties.
** Doran Martell is stated to be about 10 years older than his younger brother Oberyn; two brothers died as infants while they also had a sister named Elia who's two years older than Oberyn and was murdered along with her children Rhaenys and Aegon (see above). This also applies to Doran and Oberyn's children; Doran's eldest child Arianne is 11 years older than her youngest brother Trystane while Oberyn's children are much more varied; four of his daughters are adults with the eldest nearing 30 while his four younger daughters born from his paramour Ellaria Sand are between the ages of 14 and 7.
** This might be the case with the Daynes; Arthur and Ashara are contemporaries of Ned Stark, Robert Baratheon, and Rhaegar Targaryen, but their sister Allyria is betrothed to Beric Dondarrion, a man nearly 20 years Arthur's junior.
* Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles:
** ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices'': Helen is 16 years older than her youngest half-sibling Tavvy.
** In the anthology book ''Literature/GhostsOfTheShadowmarket'', Tessa gives birth to a baby girl, Mina, in 2013. Tessa, who is immortal, previously gave birth in 1886 (James Herondale) and 1887 (Lucie Herondale). The same year Mina is born, James's great-great-grandson, Jace, turns 22 years old.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Kaladin, who is roughly 21, returns to his hometown in ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'' and learns that in the years he's been away his parents have had another child, a little boy whom he estimates is about a year old.
* In ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'', Francie and Neeley are fourteen and thirteen years old when their sister Laurie is born. Their parents were seventeen and nineteen when they married and [[TeenPregnancy eighteen/nineteen and nineteen/twenty when they were born]].
* PlayedWith in Creator/JRRTolkien's legendarium: since elves are immortal, "generation" doesn't have the same connotation. For example, there's a 111-year age difference between Arwen and her older brothers, the twins Elladan and Elrohir.
** Narrowly averted with Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor in ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin''. By the time Nienor was born, Túrin was nine years old and had left home for his own safety after their home of Dor-lómin was taken.
* Halfway through ''Literature/ThisIsNotAWerewolfStory,'' [[SadistTeacher Tuffman]] claims that he's [[TheProtagonist Raul]]'s great-uncle, the much-younger brother of his grandmother; supposedly, she died when Raul's mom was still a kid, leaving twenty-year-old Tuffman to raise her. Later revelations imply that this story probably isn't true, however, unless Raul's grandmother was also [[spoiler:[[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld hundreds of years old]]]].
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', the adopted Cullen siblings all [[Really700YearsOld appear to be]] in their late teens, but some of them actually have [[ExaggeratedTrope decades]] between them. This is {{justified|trope}} by them being vampires who were turned at different times. Jasper was born in 1844 and turned in 1863, Edward was born in 1901 and turned in 1918, Alice was born in 1901 and turned in 1920, Rosalie was born in 1915 and turned in 1933, and Emmett was born in 1915 and turned in 1935. There are 71 years between the 'eldest' Jasper and the 'youngest' Emmett.
* In ''Literature/TheVampireDiaries'' Elena Gilbert is seventeen years old at the start of the series while her sister Margaret is around four years old, making Elena thirteen years older. Margaret isn't as affected by their parents' deaths as Elena because she only a year old at the time and gets along better with their aunt Judith, who is raising them. Elena's protectiveness of her little sister is one of the early signs that she's more of a LovableAlphaBitch deep down. Due to her young age, Margaret also [[ChildrenAreInnocent readily accepts]] Elena's claims that she's [[spoiler:a guardian angel after Elena dies and is in fact resurrected as a vampire; Elena had been forced to reveal herself to save Margaret from her aggressive kitten, who was actually a shapeshifted [[BigBad Katherine]]]].
* Several examples from ''Literature/WarriorCats''; [[JustifiedTrope justified]] given that the characters are cats, who don't actually go through menopause and can have kits at any point in their lives, in addition to having much shorter childhoods compared to their overall lifespan than humans have. Even siblings with a "normal" age gap but not in the same litter often have adult siblings when they are born, due to, as mentioned above, being cats:
** There's Leopardfoot and Patchpelt with their siblings Redtail, Willowpelt, and Spottedleaf, who are all younger than Leopardfoot's son and are still fairly young warriors when Patchpelt had retired to be an elder.
** There is the gap between the first and second litters of Sorreltail and Brackenfur's kits and especially Cloudtail and Brightheart's kits (Whitewing was already a fairly senior warrior when full-grown children of her own by the time her siblings were born).
** Yellowfang and her siblings are an especially extreme example - Yellowfang already has an adult child and is considered elderly when her siblings are born.
* In ''Literature/TheWildflowers'', [[spoiler:Cat]] discovers she has a half-sister who was already an adult and married when [[spoiler:Cat]] was born. It turns out that her half-sister [[spoiler:is actually her adoptive mother Geraldine, who was pressured into adopting Cat to cover up the fact that Geraldine's mother had an affair with her brother-in-law]].
* Creator/JacquelineWilson's novels sometimes feature this trope:
** In ''Literature/TheDiamondGirls'', there's a big age gap between the Diamond sisters and their newest sibling Sundance, whom their mother unexpectedly got pregnant with. Dixie, previously the youngest in the family, is still ten years older than Sundance; the eldest, Martine, is sixteen years older [[spoiler:and is later revealed to be [[TeenPregnancy having a baby herself]], meaning Sundance will have a niece or nephew who is around the same age]]. Dixie also finds out her father and his wife recently had another baby, making her ten years older than her other half-sibling too.
** In ''My Sister Jodie'', [[spoiler:it's eventually revealed Sharon is pregnant with her third child; Pearl found her pregnancy test earlier in the story and thought it was her sister Jodie's at first. Pearl is eleven years older than her new sister May. Jodie would've been fourteen years older...[[PosthumousSibling if she'd lived to meet her]]; she tragically dies near the end of the novel and Pearl takes it upon herself to look after May the way Jodie did for her and ensure that she knows who Jodie was]].
** In ''Secrets'', Treasure's mother has younger siblings who are closer to Treasure's age (she's about eleven). Treasure's aunt Loretta is only four years older than her at fifteen, Treasure's uncle Willie is still in school, and her aunt Patsy is even younger than her.
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