A grieving son was hit with a second crushing blow after his mum passed away - as he learned his wife is actually his sister. His world was turned upside down when he discovered the truth, after having grown up not knowing about his dad.
He met his wife in a coffee shop and they started dating before getting married, with his mum passing away from cancer and his new wife helped him grieve.
But they got the news they never wanted to hear after he began clearing out his mum's attic following her death. The shocking saga was revealed in a Reddit post, The Mirror reports.
He explained: "My mother had an at-home birth and out popped her only child, me. When filling out all [paper] work she refused to give any information on my father so according to the government, I don't have a dad."
"Life growing up wasn't hard as my mum was a doctor so financially we were stable - and my grandma would take care of me and it was overall nice. However, my mum refused to ever talk about my dad. All I knew is he was 'a tall son of a b****'."
At the age of 24 he met his wife, who was 19 at the time, in a coffee shop. He explained: "[She had] long black hair, a lovely face and an amazing body. She was the sweetest thing and seemed to understand me."
"Soon enough, I asked for her number. Things went up from there - we started dating, I got close with her family she got close to mine, and a year ago I proposed to her at the coffee shop we met at.
"To my joy she said yes. My mum got cancer and was put in a hospital. In December 2018, we got married and Skyped called the whole thing for my mum. In January 2019, my mother passed away. My wonderful now wife was amazing throughout this all.
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"We held the funeral and she kept me going." But this is when his "life took a turn". When clearing out his mum's attic, he came across a photo album from his mum's college years.
He said: "I flipped through it and noticed something, a guy commonly with my mum was my wife's dad. Shocked and stunned, I approached my wife with it and she said we should talk to her dad about it.
"We go to him and he tells us about how he dated a girl in college, got her pregnant, couldn't handle it, and disappeared to a different part of town. We explain to him how that's my mother and that's where this story leaves off."
After overcoming their initial panic, the couple decided to stay together despite knowing they 'share DNA' - but the idea of having children is now up in the air. He added: "I'm grossed out but my wife and I talked about it.
"We're going to try and stay together and never talk about this again. Right now, we aren't planning on having kids. We'll cross that bridge when we get there." Many expressed their shock at his predicament, but others said they needed facts to be confirmed.
One reader said: "First off, get a paternity test on yourself and him. Make sure he's your father... he might not be. Then, once you actually have hard facts, you can go from there."
Another added: "There is a phenomenon that happens when siblings, that don't grow up together, end up being really attracted to one another when they meet up later in life."
A third sympathised: "Every time I hear these stories it makes me internally scream. It's so unfortunate, sorry. Glad you two have decided to stay together, most don't, to my dismay."
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