With a global population of 8.1 billion individuals, finding a spouse who does not share your DNA should be simple. However, around 250,000 people in the United States who are married to a cousin are keeping it inside the family.
That’s what happened to one woman, who discovered after five months of dating that the man she thought was “the one” was actually the one in her father’s family photos.
A woman in her mid-twenties posted her terrible story on Reddit, saying how her delight about her new partner, whom she met on a dating app, turned into complete dread.
“I was talking to this guy on Hinge who had the softest of hazel eyes, and at the time, I thought he was the one,” writes the woman, who goes by the name Gelicca. “After exchanging a few messages, we decide to go on a date, and one thing lead to another, and we were a couple.”
After five months together, the woman and her boyfriend, also in his mid-20s, wanted to take their relationship to the next level by meeting each other’s families.
As their families lived on opposite sides of the country, the big introduction would take a lot of planning and careful consideration.
“We were moved away from home and hadn’t had time to meet each other’s parents,” she writes. “Instead of doing the traditional, I’ll bring you over to meet my parents, and I’ll go over to meet yours, we decided for a dinner with both our parents.”
The author admits she was concerned about her parents seeing her new partner because she had no idea they were already acquainted.
Family reunion
“When my father stood up from the table to introduce himself to my boyfriend’s mother, his face turned completely white, as he was looking directly at his cousin (Uncle’s daughter). It took her a second to realize as well,” the woman says.
The poster explains their parents hadn’t seen each other in close to 30 years. “We could tell something was wrong the way our parents looked at each other, and they informed us that we were related.”
Taboo
Cousin marriage (consanguinity) accounts for around 10% of the global relationship population. According to media sources, it is “a deeply rooted social trend among one-fifth of the world population mostly residing in the Middle East, West Asia and North Africa.”
But not in the United States, unless you live in one of the 20 states (plus the District of Columbia) that permit it.
Finding out about this atrocity
The woman created a new Reddit account to avoid the disgrace of her regularly used profile and says she is “horrified” over the occurrence. “You hear this story millions of times of people unknowingly hooking up with their relatives and finding out about this atrocity in the most awkward ways, and mine was no exception.”
Online fans flocked to the comments section to show their support.
