A 23-year-old Finnish woman is keeping it in the family by marrying her stepbrother – and their parents support their decision.
Matilda Eriksson said she never considered getting married until she met Samuli, 27, who became her stepbrother after her mom married his father in 2019.
“I responded right away with passion,” Ms. Eriksson told Yahoo News of their meeting at her mom’s 50th birthday party.
“It took us two weeks to start dating after that and he basically moved in with me right away. It felt good and natural immediately.”
She said some of their friends were a bit hesitant about the relationship, but her mom helped her “get my thoughts in order” to go through with the marriage.
“Some of our friends were first a bit doubtful and [were] kind of judging. I think it was because of the confusion that someone I had been calling stepbrother has to now be called my boyfriend,” she said.
“My mom told me to do whatever I felt was the most right in that moment, putting everything else aside and to follow my heart, and that led me to marry Samuli.
“We both have been in a few long relationships before but never felt like this with anyone.”
Eriksson added that she thinks that her and Samuli’s parents may even secretly have wanted them to get together.
Eriksson said she Googled if there could be any possible legal implications they would face in the future.
“First we found some false, old information that it would be illegal, but gladly one of my sister‘s closest friends is a law student and she told us that there would be no problem if we wanted to get married,” she said.
Ms. Eriksson said “we even proposed to each other at the same time and cried” and claimed “we are 100 percent a match made in heaven”.
The happy couple have talked about having children but they are in no rush to start a family.