Studies have shown that the chances of an affair turning into a long-lasting relationship are roughly one in 100, but these 15 celebrities have beaten the odds by settling down with their secret lovers. Who’d a thunk it?

WENN

Prince Charles first met Camilla Parker Bowles in 1970 at a polo match. Though they dated for a little while, both the Prince of Wales and Bowles went on to marry other people. Prince Charles’s fairytale marriage to Princess Diana was thoroughly publicized. So was their divorce and his extramarital affair with Bowles, who he began secretly seeing again in the 80’s. After his divorce was finalized in 1996, Prince Charles and Bowles kept their relationship out of the limelight, finally tying the knot in 2005.

This weekend I watched “Lean on Me” and “Driving Miss Daisy” back to back on OWN and I thought, I love Morgan Freeman, I forgot he’s such a good actor. Then I saw reports that he may have actually married his 27-year-old step-granddaughter, E’Dena Hines, or at least plans to, and I thought, I’m disgusted by Morgan Freeman, I forgot he’s such a creeper.

Rumors of this sordid, decade-long love affair have swarmed for several years and many assumed it was the cause of Morgan’s divorce to his second wife, Myrna Colley-Lee, which was finalized in September 2010 with a settlement (hush money) of $400 million. Reports that Morgan was now free to marry his step-granddaughter and had plans to do so were never confirmed, but they were never denied either. What the reports did was get people talking about the actor and his personal life, asking whether his rumored relationship is wrong, questionable, or simply odd.

On one hand, E’Dena isn’t actually his blood relative, and since she would have been about 17 when they began this alleged relationship that puts her at the age of consent—and him out legal trouble. On the other hand, he’s still family and assumedly played a father-like role in her life. Dating an older man is one thing. Dating a man nearly 50 years older than you who was once married to your grandmother and who raised you is another.

Inappropriate would be an understatement to describe the transition from father-figure to lover, and it certainly suggests other inappropriate behavior could have gone on long before the age of 17. After all, what would spark that sort of attraction at that age—for both Morgan and E’Dina.  She would have had to have some sort of influence that made her think a relationship with her former step-grandfather would be OK and some think Morgan was that influence. Even when you think about Morgan as a man in his mid-70s, dating a younger woman is one thing, and not uncommon in Hollywood. But a young woman you helped rear? That raises more than eyebrows and side eyes.

Morgan’s been likened to Woody Allen who married Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his previous girlfriend Mia Farrow, when he was 56 and she was 21. Although Woody was never Soon-Yi’s legal stepfather, it can be assumed he had a fatherly influence over the course of his 12-year relationship with Mia. Once, when Woody was questioned about the relationship which he claimed wasn’t scandalous in any way, he said equality is not necessarily a requirement in a relationship and that “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to those things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.”

You may not be able to help who you fall in lust with, but love is an emotion that grows with time and shouldn’t be nurtured in a romantic way with someone of an inappropriate age and relationship like Soon-Yi was when Mia found his nude pictures of her daughter. Morgan Freeman may not have crossed the line in that way, but his relationship with E’Dena is still questionable at the very least. Some things the heart just ought not want or have.

What do you think about Morgan Freeman and E’Dena Hines? Does the age difference and familial relationship matter if she was of age when they began dating and they’re not blood related?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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