Lord knows it can be hard to find love out here in these streets. And when you find it, chances are you won’t be so willing to give it up. But what if the object of your affection is closely related to you? No, not your second cousin. What if he’s your brother?
I know. It’s never really a good time to talk about incest but this is exactly what happened to Adriana, a 39-year-old Brazilian woman and her 37-year-old husband Leandro.
According to the Daily Mail, Adriana and Leandro have been together for seven years and have a six year old daughter.
The couple, who wish to maintain their privacy and won’t reveal their surnames, spent their lives trying to locate their birth mothers after having been abandoned when they were still babies.
They were told that both of their mothers were called Maria but the name is so common, they didn’t think much of it.
Adriana hadn’t seen her mother since she was one, when she left her to be raised by her father. And Leandro learned at eight years old that his mother had abandoned him and the woman who had raised him was actually his stepmother.
Leandro stayed in the same town in which he was born, in Sao Paulo, in southeast Brazil. But Adriana moved around, working as a housemaid. She was married for 15 years and had three children.
But when her marriage came to an end, she moved back home where she met and fell in love with Leandro. Shortly after, the couple moved in together.
The two continued their quests to find their mothers.
Last month, Adriana contacted a local radio station to ask for help. And this week she and her mother were reunited on air.
During the program, “The Time Is Now,” which specializes in finding lost relatives, Adriana’s mother revealed she also had a son who didn’t know her, named Leandro. And eventually, it became clear that Adriana’s husband and her mother’s son are the same person.
Adriana wept on the radio as she told her mother:
“I don’t believe that you’re telling me this. Leandro is my husband.”
By the end of the interview, it seemed that Adriana had already made her decision about what she was going to do in terms of her relationship.
“Now I’m scared to go home and find out that Leandro doesn’t want me anymore. I love him so much.”
Yesterday, Adriana and Leandro, who never married legally, have said that they are going to stay together despite learning that they are brother and sister.
Adriana said,
“Only death is going to separate us. All this happened because God wanted it to happen. Of course it would have been different if we had known all this before, but we didn’t and we fell in love. We thought it was funny that both our mothers had the same name, but it is a common name so we just thought it was a coincidence. At first we were really knocked by it all but we had a family meeting and told everyone that we are going to stay husband and wife, whatever anyone might think. We have so many plans together, nothing’s going to break us up, nothing.”
Adriana and Leandro both say that they don’t blame their mother for leaving them and have spoken with her several times and plan to meet up soon.
Inside the story, The Daily Mail, included a table containing information about genetic sexual attraction. They write:
A phenomenon called genetic sexual attraction can occur when estranged relatives meet for the first time as adults.
Feelings of intense intimacy can be confused as the brain struggles to associate each other as family.
When families grow up together, an inherent taboo is created which desensitizes them to sexual attraction.
It is known as the Westermarck effect but is missing from relatives who do not know each other.
This is tragic right?
Arguably, having those abandonment issues, growing up without a mother, at least on Adriana’s part, the potential of losing Leandro may feel even more grave.
And while I would hate to be placed in that situation, I can’t help but ask myself what I would do in that same predicament. I just don’t know if things would ever be the same romantically knowing that dude was my brother. And I would like to think I would be content knowing that he would always be in my life and I would always love him, just not romantically or sexually anymore. But then again, I’ve never fallen in love with a man only to learn later he’s family… What would you do– or what do you think you would do if you were Adriana?
