I told people that my boyfriend was my uncle — I was ashamed of our 37-year age gap

What the puck? A young ice hockey player says he spent years pretending his much-older boyfriend was his uncle — because he had not come out as gay and was embarrassed by their 37-year age gap.

Janne Puhakka was 19 years old when he met Rolf Nordmo, then age 56, in June 2014.

At the time, Puhakka was a professional athlete playing for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and had not disclosed his true identity to his family, friends or teammates.

“I was frightened, and I didn’t want people to know about my sexuality,” Puhakka, now 27, told South West News Service. “I was scared of the way I would be perceived in the ultra-masculine sporting world.”

Puhakka and Nordmo spent the summer together in Europe and quickly realized their deep attraction to one another.

“I knew that I had feelings I had never felt before, but was constantly telling myself it was just a summer fling and wouldn’t work because of our age gap,” Nordmo, now 64, stated.

“I was fighting myself the whole time and was trying to fight the love I had for him, but it was impossible,” he continued. “I had never felt like this before. I thought, ‘What on earth does this young man want with me, an old pig?’”

Puhakka also admitted he was falling in love with Nordmo, but was not yet ready to publicly come out of the closet.

After the summer ended, he returned to Canada for the commencement of the next ice hockey season, with Nordmo flying out to visit him a short time later.

Puhakka — originally from Finland — was staying with a host family in Canada and lied to them, saying Nordmo was his uncle, so that he didn’t have to explain their relationship when he went to see Nordmo at his hotel.

“I had to keep him a secret, and it isn’t a nice thing to hide the person you love,” Puhakka admitted.

Puhakka later came out to his family, and told them that his boyfriend was the same age as his dad.

The family took the news well, but Puhakka still wasn’t ready to tell his teammates and other friends about his beau — so he kept up the uncle lie.

Meanwhile, Nordmo had been married to a woman for 17 years and had three children before coming out at age 40. So he understood his boyfriend’s hesitation in being openly gay.

However, the brave sportsman finally came out in 2019, quitting ice hockey and returning to Europe to move in with Nordmo.

The pair have spent the past three years living in Helsinki, Finland — where people often mistake them for father and son.

“We find all the comments quite funny, and once people start talking and get to know us they are generally so warm and accepting,” Nordmo said.

Other strangers assume Nordmo — who works as a vet — is Puhakka’s “sugar daddy.”

“When we’re out on the town and I buy him a drink, people instantly make assumptions because I’m older, but he has his own job and makes his own money,” Nordmo said. “Sometimes I pay and sometimes he pays.”

The couple say they haven’t noticed their almost-four-decade age gap, with Nordmo romantically swooning: “I often say Janne is an old soul in a young body and I’m a young soul in an old body.”

His three children — who were initially reluctant about their dad’s romance with a teenager who was around their age — are now accepting of the partnership.

And Nordmo can more than keep up in the bedroom with his much-younger beau, despite being in late middle age.

Puhakka revealed that he sometimes has to tell his amorous older boyfriend that he needs a day off from sex.

For now, the couple don’t plan to have any children of their own, and are loved-up living together with their dog.

“It’s important to be happy now, and I don’t see the point in dwelling on the future,” Nordmo said about his advancing years. “Who knows what’s around the corner?”