A good friend is hard to find — especially if you’re a guy nearing (or over) 30. At an age when men are increasingly consumed by their careers, relationships and family — and removed from environments like college that surround us with a pool of potential buds — we can start to feel isolated and sadly, friendless. It’s not just anecdotal either: A 2015 study by the Movember Foundation found that millions of men in the U.K. don’t have a single close friend to confide in.
So how do guys manage to hang onto friendships into middle- and old-agedom? MEL brought in four BFF pairs to talk to us about how they’ve made it work — from lifelong friends to two dudes who just met (on the set of a Demi Lovato music video, no less).