Every family has lore that makes people blink in confusion and causes their jaws to drop. According to TikToker Maudeline (@maudelinee), one of the most interesting things about her family is that her cousins are married to each other and have a kid together.
It’s the kind of scandalous headline that you can’t help but be intrigued by.
About 14 years ago, her cousins, Charlie and Harriet, were not close at all. That changed when they started medical school. Charlie started first, and Harriet went to med school a few years later.
Harriet decided to call Charlie for some advice on med school stuff, and they ended up chatting more and more. They bonded over shared stress, long nights of studying, and the unique pressure that comes with medical training.
The following summer, the family reunited at the summer house. Charlie and Harriet were there as well. They got very, very close and eventually developed romantic feelings for each other.
“Fast forward 10 years, they’ve had this crazy love story, have broken up, have gotten back together since, and they are now married with a child and another baby on the way,” said Maudeline.
One of the cousins is on her dad’s side, and the other is from her mom’s side, so technically, they are not biologically related. It’s just two family trees that happened to intertwine in a very unexpected way.
But Maudeline loves to tell people that her cousins are married to see their reactions before she clarifies that one really important detail.
In the comments section, several TikTok users confessed to their own complicated family trees. From distant cousin marriages in older generations to twin brothers getting married to the same woman, people have experienced it all within their family trees.
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The stories also sparked some conversation about genetics and health issues that can crop up when individuals are too closely related.
“My twin uncles both married and divorced the same woman. One has two, the other has three kids,” commented one user.
“My grandma married my grandpa, and her sister married my grandpa’s brother. We’re just a family wreath around here. *Banjos play in the distance,*” shared another.
“My uncle’s second wife was his first wife’s cousin. He had kids from both ladies. So, my cousins are siblings and cousins at the same time,” wrote a third.
“I have two friends whose grandparents were cousins. The kids from the one family all had some disease, and they all died before the age of 60. The kids in the other family all had heart problems,” added a fourth.
Overall, these stories prove that sometimes, family trees don’t branch out. They loop back around in ways that no one saw coming.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
