I waited twenty years before dating my cousin, who was ten years younger than me
A DIVORCE has revealed she waited 20 years before starting a relationship with her cousin, who was ten years her junior.
Sandra was 28 and married with a one-year-old baby when she began to have difficulty ignoring her “deep bond” with Charlie.
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She said they would only see each other on family occasions as she lived in Nottinghamshire and he lived with his parents in Scotland.
No one suspected that they liked each other because they were cousins, but they had a “nonverbal understanding” of their feelings for each other.
“It wasn’t until twenty years later – when I was 51 and he was 41 – that we finally got together,” Sandra said. The independent.
“My husband had already left me and Charlie had split up with his long-time girlfriend.”
A kiss while walking during a family holiday in the Lake District led to the start of their year-long secret relationship.
Sandra said she was hard on herself and worried their family wouldn’t understand if they found out.
At the time, she had two children, ages 22 and 24, who grew up watching Charlie.
She and Charlie would have to make excuses to spend time together and lie that he comforted her after her divorce if they hugged.
However, nine months after their affair, Charlie began experiencing seizures related to a brain tumor that went into remission.
Sandra said she became convinced it was time to tell their family about the affair so she could visit him in hospital.
Despite Charlie’s concerns about being ‘upset’, she told her mother and after a positive response, she called his parents.
“No one could understand why we hadn’t told them before. In our minds it was a guilty secret, but in reality it wasn’t so bad,” Sandra said.
‘What quickly undid the family drama was that Charlie wasn’t feeling well and time was precious.’
The doctor told Charlie he had six months to two years to live, which eventually led to Sandra quitting her job to move in with him in Scotland.
The couple couldn’t get married because her divorce fell through, but decided to reminisce by buying a camper to travel around Europe.
Can I marry my cousin in Britain?
AROUND the world, more than 10 percent of marriages are between cousins.
In Britain there is no legal barrier to a relationship between two cousins.
That means that if you fall in love with your aunts and uncles’ children, there’s nothing stopping you from eventually tying the knot.
If you are over 18 years old, you can do this without the consent of your legal guardian or parent.
Marriages between cousins were once very common in Europe, especially among the elite.
Their trip was cut short when Charlie spent three weeks exploring Croatia.
He was rushed back to Britain for treatment but was never able to walk again and died a month later at the age of 44.
Sandra said they were only together for three years after revealing their relationship to the rest of the family and it taught her the importance of following your heart.
“We had a very short time together, and we could have spent more time together if we hadn’t worried so much about what other people thought,” she said.
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