A 25-year-old Princeton valedictorian has revealed she is engaged to her former professor and 'beloved mentor' who is nearly 50 years her senior.
Ivy League graduate Cameron Platt told friends and family in a gushing Facebook post about her love for 71-year-old Lee Clark Mitchell, writing that they had 'made it official'.
Rhodes Scholar Platt, who has just finished her master's degree at the University of Oxford, said the pair only started dating six months ago after praising his 'brilliance, sensitivity, and passion'.
Mitchell, who will be 72 in June, was chair of Princeton's English Department, when Cameron took his classes during her sophomore year five years ago, The New York Post reports.
In a post last week Platt, from Santa Barbara, wrote: 'I was taking his lecture course on Henry James and William Faulkner. Lee was little more than a stranger to me then, but he captivated me with his brilliance, sensitivity, and passion.
'His lectures changed forever the way that I think.
'By the time of my graduation he had become a dear and devoted mentor to me.'
Princeton valedictorian Cameron Platt, 25, left, has announced she is engaged to her 71-year-old former professor and 'beloved mentor' Lee Clark Mitchell, right
Platt told friends and family in a gushing Facebook post about her love for the 71-year-old professor
After travelling to Oxford to study there Cameron said she was 'surprised' at how much she still thought of Mitchell, who is currently on academic sabbatical from Princeton.
He was previously married to Carolyn Abbate, 63, described as 'one of the world’s most accomplished and admired music historians'. The couple are thought to have two sons, aged 21 and 26.
Mitchell was previously married to Carolyn Abbate, 63, described as 'one of the world’s most accomplished and admired music historians'. The couple are thought to have two sons, aged 21 and 26
In a 2005 interview with The Harvard Gazette Abbate spoke about life with Mitchell and sons Carl, 26, and 21-year-old Lucas. She spoke of the family splitting its time between Boston and New Jersey and spending their summers in Maine.
Abbate, who attended Yale, is currently the Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor at Harvard University.
Sharing a picture showing off her diamond ring, Platt added: 'Soon I understood that I felt something for him that I'd not fully acknowledged before. At the end of my two years in Oxford, after much reflection, and with encouragement from my wonderful friends, I resolved to shoot my shot.'
The pair then went on their first date to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan in September after Cameron struck up the courage to ask Lee out.
She said her former professor spent most her first date trying to 'figure out' if it was a romantic day out and despite concerns about 'coming together at such different stages of life' she said they 'rambled' through the museum like 'shy teens, eager but tentative'.
Cameron, who wrote her senior thesis at Princeton on ways to understand female selfhood in English literature, said they kept their relationship private for the first six months.
But the couple have now made their love public and have now received hundreds of likes on Facebook at their happy news.
Platt, who has just finished her master's degree at the University of Oxford, said the pair only started dating six months ago after praising his 'brilliance, sensitivity, and passion'
Lee was previously married to Carolyn Abbate, 63, described as 'one of the world’s most accomplished and admired music historians'. The couple are thought to have two sons, aged 21 and 26. Photo courtesy of Inside High Noon
The pair then went on their first date to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. Platt said they 'rambled' through the museum like 'shy teens, eager but tentative'
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SharePlatt, who was named Princeton’s top scholar in the fields of Old English, Medieval, and Early Modern Studies, added: 'At last, to our amazement, we broke through.
'Something then sprouted from a seed that neither of us had known that we'd planted, and we realized that the force of feeling that we'd long had for each other and called by other names (admiration, wonder, devotion, gratitude) held within it the hope and the potential for love.
'Eventually it became impossible to deny how fully we feel meant for each other, and neither of us has looked back since.
'Now here we are, more enthralled than ever, wanting no life other than one we make together. Last week, we made it official.'
DailyMail.com has contacted Mitchell, Platt and Princeton for comment.
The school doesn't believe it's appropriate 'to comment on personal relationships that take place outside of the University', a spokesman told The New York Post.
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