The story of one woman’s shock discovery that she and her husband are actually first cousins after 30 years of marriage has recently exploded across the internet and prompted quite a fierce discussion about how the couple should move forward.
Marriages can be full of surprises.
Marriage can be far from an easy ride, as you go through your life with your spouse you may experience moments of turbulence, but that is natural for any relationship.
However, one marriage recently hit a speed bump that is slightly more severe than others may face.
It all started when one woman bought her husband a DNA test for his birthday.
The woman in question, who has remained anonymous, sent her story into Slate’s Dear Prudence podcast in a letter that detailed her horrific experience.
The woman wrote that she had bought her husband a DNA test for an ancestry site, a very popular present in today’s climate; however, the test revealed something quite unexpected.
The test showed that the married couple are actually first cousins.
The discovery left the woman wishing that she had never gotten the DNA test in the first place as it has left her and her husband’s world in “tatters”.
“My husband and I grew up in the same small town. We have a two-year-old son. For a birthday present, I got both of us an ancestry kit. I wish to God I never came up with the idea […] This news unsettles me and has left my husband’s world in tatters,” she wrote to the podcast .
The couple are now sleeping in separate rooms as they struggle to deal with the news.
The woman apparently admitted that the couple have had to resort to sleeping in separate bedrooms until they can figure out how to move forward.
However, there seems to be little to no end in sight, as her husband will apparently not discuss the situation. This may be due to the fact that, as they try and figure out how this is possible, there is a chance that her husband’s mother had an affair, which the husband may be struggling with as well:
“His parents have been married for 30 years and my husband always held his mother close to sainthood.”
The woman has been trying to figure out how the whole situation is possible.
“All my uncles are happily married — I thought. I find myself looking through photo albums of our childhood together and trying to figure out the truth,” the woman wrote. “All my uncles are happily married — I thought. I find myself looking through photo albums of our childhood together and trying to figure out the truth.”
The woman has also apparently been struggling to confide in any of her close family. At present, she believes that her husband’s mother had an affair with one of her uncles, but she can’t prove anything as yet.
The podcast hosts tried to offer their best advice possible as how to deal with this difficult situation.
As the situation continues to affect not only the couple’s marriage but their son’s life as well, the podcast host Daniel Mallory Ortberg and guest host Connor Goldsmith tried their best to offer advice as to how to handle this incredibly strange situation.
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Goldsmith didn’t see that there was too much to worry about, saying, “You’re cousins. You’re not siblings. You didn’t grow up thinking of yourself related. There are plenty of places around the world where people marry their first cousins and it’s not considered that weird.”
Ortberg confessed that they would struggle to live with the fact that one of their parents saw them marry a person who was their cousin without warning them.
How would you proceed if this was your marriage?
At present, it seems like therapy is perhaps the main course of action for the couple; however, if the husband refuses to go or the situation continues in this toxic manner, then the future may not look good for this marriage.
This is such a bizarre situation, how do you think that you would handle this? Let me know in the comments below.
h/t: Daily Mail
