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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Found out a shocking secret

412 replies

Whatheheck · 21/02/2023 16:21

I'm meant to be getting married to dp next year. But I've just learnt a shocking secret about his family. Me and dp have been having problems anyways but after learning this secret im annoyed at dp for keeping it and I don't feel comfortable marrying into this family and calling them my family, aibu?

OP posts:
jamdonut · 22/02/2023 18:17

I don’t know… My aunty was also my mums aunty. There was only a couple of years difference between them and they grew up like sisters…I know it’s not the same… I just like the weird twist!!😏

Gwenhwyfar · 22/02/2023 18:19

"Pretty sure incest is reviled in all cultures Hmm"

Well, not by the Royal Family and cousin marriage is encouraged in many cultures.
Yes, those are not examples of illegal incest, but the word can have a broader definition too.

Eastereggsboxedupready · 22/02/2023 18:20

Surely it just means less cards to write at Xmas?
Merry Christmas Aunt/Sister /Grandma /Cousin. They can delete as applicable!
Imo it isn't The Secret that's out of order but dp's smug attitude about you /your family being inferior...

Gwenhwyfar · 22/02/2023 18:21

"the Queen and Prince Philip weren't first cousins, they were third cousins."

I think they were third cousins on one side and second cousins once removed on the other. Even that does not describe it as so much inbreeding had gone on before that their family relationship would be closer than the average two third cousins.

enoughofthiscrap · 22/02/2023 18:26

jamdonut · 22/02/2023 18:05

My mum married her mum’s sister’s husband’s brother. That made her first cousins also my first cousins once removed through my maternal side, but through my paternal side my first cousins were her niece and nephew by marriage…
confusing, but all legal lol .

Marrying your aunt's brother in law is not incest. They're not related by blood.

JillyPooper123 · 22/02/2023 18:27

@Whatheheck This thread has more chance of blowing up if you don’t elaborate a bit more because people are going to continue asking questions and guessing.

You’d be better off just spilling the beans, discovering that others on here have similar stories to tell and watching as it all fizzles out. It’s the mystery you’ve created that’s sustaining this thread and generating more discussion.

Just say what it is so it can be done with.

Redebs · 22/02/2023 18:28

There are a few cousin marriages in my husband's family.
Hasn't stopped their offspring becoming doctors and scientists.

Most pairings (even repeated over generations) don't produce any health issues, but the healthiest way to select a partner is to find someone from another part of the world 😉

Madamum18 · 22/02/2023 18:28

Marrying your first cousin is legal. Risks to children are minimal. It is NOT incest!

You say it is "something like that"

Well as far as I can see, if this "issue (not) is making you feel like this, and your DP kept it secret from you (why I wonder) then yhe real issue is the strength of your relationship. If you REALLY wanted to be with him you woukd be overcoming tge problem,communicating with each other and moving forward together ..but instead look where you are at!! Hmmm !!

wentworthinmate · 22/02/2023 18:29

Don’t marry, stay together maybe but why marry? You are already having doubts and this ‘secret’ has made it worse. Stick as you are going forward.

Ineke · 22/02/2023 18:37

He’s kept this from you, he says his family are better than yours, what his family have done, or do makes you uncomfortable. Everyone has different standards, so it’s your choice and MN can’t tell you as we all can accept different things of people. Maybe they grow and smoke weed, maybe they have sex parties, maybe they are all white witches! Who knows, it’s your decision, perhaps talk about it with you DP and ask him about it, does he condone their activities , in which case you may need to understand it or put a line under your relationship and move on.

Sorchamarie · 22/02/2023 18:37

"Me and dp have been having problems anyways"...
"But dp has made me feel that his family is better than mine as I come from a broken home and he doesn't"....
"I've been made to feel inferior for my family".

The above are all valid reasons to put the marriage off till you've worked through the problems you're having, if that's possible, and/or break up with him entirely if you can't sort them. Your partner should be your biggest supporter, not someone who makes you feel inferior.

GUARDIAN1 · 22/02/2023 18:37

Really difficult for anyone to know whether you're being unreasonable when you won't say what the issue is!

Ineke · 22/02/2023 18:38

Oops, sorry didn’t read the whole thread. Even so, you need to make your own mind up about it.

Ellyess · 22/02/2023 18:48

I think if it's too awful for you to tell us, then you'll never be able to cope with it. I think that your dp should have told you and as for making you feel your family is not as good as his because you come from a 'broken home'! Well - that is appalling! I'm beginning to think his family is a bit too close and would be healthier if a relationship had broken....

When you say to eighteenthirteen1, 'something like that' at the suggestion his parents are cousins [which would not be illegal], I think you mean they are either brother and sister or parent and child.

If they could not tell you and expect you to have children in the same lineage, I think it is very selfish of them., especially since someone else knows who told you.

By the way, we fall in love with people similar to us, I was taught in my psychology degree, right down to matching ear lobes in many cases. Apparently, twins, not even identical [or they would need to be gay] who are separated as babies, if they meet after puberty, can't wait to get into bed together - to quote my Tutor. Apparently there is plenty of research on this but it's not my field, I just remember being taught it. Were the two concerned brought up separately, thus didn't grow up together and then met as adults? That could explain it.

But as for getting married. No. He must have known this would floor you. He should know you well enough now. But it was dishonest not to tell you. That is what puts me off most.

Younglady18 · 22/02/2023 18:55

TBH it is your decision but ‘if I knew then what I know now’ I certainly wouldn’t have married my first husband. If it irks now the resentment is unlikely to improve

Stressybetty · 22/02/2023 18:55

Sugarfree23 · 22/02/2023 05:48

@Fraaahnces the issue with cousin marriages isn't a huge issue for one generation.
The issue within a section of the Pakistani community is generation after generation marrying their cousins and often 'double cousins' marrying.
Two sisters marrying two brothers.
Their children "double cousins" marrying
The grandchildren only have, 4 grandparents and 4 great grandparents.

A one off generation marrying cousins would have, 4 grandparents and 6 great grandparents. Completely unrelated people would have 4 grandparents and 8 great grandparents.

I went to uni with a girl who lived in UK but her extended family basically made up an entire village in Pakistan. All inter-married. She had an arranged marriage to her first cousin in between her 2nd and 3rd uni year. She could have opted out and another Pakistani friend spent ages trying to talk her out of it before she married. She really didn't want to upset her parents and I think feared being single, possibly outcast and having to find her own husband. The whole set up was completely normal for her.

Twilight7777 · 22/02/2023 18:56

Making you feel inferior about your family would be the thing that ended my marriage, never mind some sort of incest in his family.

PeachyPeachTrees · 22/02/2023 18:58

Just be glad you found out before you're married.

Ellyess · 22/02/2023 19:01

Madamum18 · 22/02/2023 18:28

Marrying your first cousin is legal. Risks to children are minimal. It is NOT incest!

You say it is "something like that"

Well as far as I can see, if this "issue (not) is making you feel like this, and your DP kept it secret from you (why I wonder) then yhe real issue is the strength of your relationship. If you REALLY wanted to be with him you woukd be overcoming tge problem,communicating with each other and moving forward together ..but instead look where you are at!! Hmmm !!

Agree on all points Madamum18. Just will add OP wrote "Something like that" [my italics] to the 'parents are cousins' suggestion. I, as I've said, took this to mean, something , a relationship, a bit closer... but who knows?
The point is, as you've said, OP is asking us instead of turning to the man in question. He doesn't sound right to me anyway. He should know her well enough to know he should have told her this awkward truth before expecting her to marry him. As for someone else telling her... that's salt in the wound.
This has revealed their relationship is not strong and even on both sides.

Emmamoo89 · 22/02/2023 19:05

Leave him then

HowcanIhelp123 · 22/02/2023 19:13

Depends on how close the relationship. While I certainly wouldn't do it, cousins marrying isn't that bad (unless the related parents were identical twins) and isn't a close enough family relation to be classed as incest. It does increase risks of recessive diseases but is enormously less risky than siblings or half-siblings.

Not my cup of tea, but cousins marrying in my DHs family wouldn't make me want to divorce him. If my DH had sex with his cousin I'd divorce him, but because he'd had sex with someone that wasn't me not because it was his cousin. If you no longer want to marry your DP because he's a twat that makes you feel like you're inferior for any reason at all I encourage you not to go through with it, but don't bring other people's private lives into it.

Sugarfree23 · 22/02/2023 19:14

Whichwhatnow · Today 18:11

Hmm.

My mum's sister is married to their uncle

Now that is icky a neice married to an uncle I didn't think was legal,

If they have a child the kid will have grandparents who are also their great grandparents.

Sugarfree23 · 22/02/2023 19:21

@Stressybetty, I think it's a cultural thing within a small part of Pakistan. Its partly an inheritance thing, keeps money within the family.
But if you watch the Dispatches documentary linked to above you see a disproportionate number of special needs children in the UK come from these families.

billy1966 · 22/02/2023 19:24

The cousin thing is, whatever.

Him making you feel less than, is huge.

Why would you have anyone like that near your children, much less consider marrying them?

Cop yourself on.

oakleaffy · 22/02/2023 19:27

”Incest and inbred children “?
I’d be horrified at that, @Whatheheck.
Incest is a powerful taboo in many societies , and rightly so.

Just a big fat Nope from me.

Not is is unhealthy from a 🧬 genetic point of view, It breaks Society’s norms.