I'm a pretty regular poster so have name changed for obvious reasons.
OK- pretty long story but has shocked the life out of me and have no-one else to ask.
My cousins are both around my age (mid 20's, with male cousin being 2 years older than us girls) and we all grew up pretty close being the oldest 3 grandkids. My other 2 cousins were always closer as they both lived close and spent a lot of time together.
At around 13-15 they were infatuated with each other, and my female cousin realized it was not against the law to marry your cousin (i think thats right) and she used to go on and on about how much she fancied my male cousin. I went to school with my female cousin and she used to send love letters to the male cousin and he'd send them back-( it was all very odd, but i was young and didn't notice much till now...) They used to go off at family parties on their own etc.. she told me a couple of times they'd tried to kiss but she'd chickened out. I know her dad found a letter off him and went mental about it too.
Well roll on a couple of years and me and female cousin were on a night out with friends when we bumped into male cousin. She was with her now DH and had only been with him a couple of months then. They went off to dance and she came back saying he was being dead weird with her and had told her she can do better than her DH and that he loved her.
She's now married with kids, and seems happy on a day to day basis. Admittedly sometimes she's a bit tired of DH but doesn't everyone argue, and she's been with him a good long while now!! Myself and my DH have kids not far from the age of hers and so we often go on day trips together, most of the time without her DH as he's normally working.
So last week we went out, and while my DH was entertaining all 4 kids, and she admitted to me that she's been having an affair with male cousin for the last 6 months!! She wants to leave her DH and run away with male cousin, she doesn't care that the whole family will disapprove and is happy to run off with him with no friends or family around her.
Now we are close friends and i can kind of see that the thing with male cousin isn't just a current affair, its developed over the years. However how will her kids take it? Will he really take on her kids? Is it even legal? I'm not sure- she seems set in her decision but i need something to change her mind as i feel she will make the worst decision of hers and her kids lives!!
Help me please!!
p.s.- sorry its such a long story but i felt i had to include everything!!