Brazilian couple discover they are brother and sister
Sao Paulo – A Brazilian couple with a 6-year-old daughter have discovered that they are brother and sister after finding out the identity of the mother neither of them had seen since they were infants.
The bizarre twist of fate was made even stranger by the way Adriana, the 39-year-old wife of Leandro, 37, discovered they were siblings.
In search of the mother she had not seen since she was a year old, Adriana contacted a local radio show, The Time is Now, which specialises in reuniting lost relatives.
Adriana, a cosmetics saleswoman, had a tearful encounter on the show with her lost mother, Maria, who said she had been forced to abandon the girl when she was only a year old because her own husband had been abusive. In tears, the two women promised they would meet up.
However, as the recording went on, Adriana asked her mother if she had had any other children.
‘‘Yes, I had Leandro, but that was with another man, he wasn’t your father,’’ Maria said.
At that point her daughter cried, and told Maria: ‘‘I can’t believe what you’re saying. Leandro is my husband.’’
The show’s presenter asked the name of Leandro’s father, confirming that the couple were in fact half-siblings.
‘‘Now I’m scared to go home and find out that Leandro doesn’t want me any more. I love him so much,’’ Adriana said.
Adriana later admitted that she had always harboured a nagging suspicion that she might have un- wittingly paired up with her own brother, since one of the two birth certificates he had been issued with listed his mother’s name as Maria, the same as her own.
The other one did not list the mother’s name. Leandro, a truck driver, had been abandoned by his mother at the age of eight.
The couple met after Adriana’s marriage of 15 years broke down. They moved in together and had a daughter, becoming common-law husband and wife.
The show caught up with the couple two days later, and they said they had been deeply shaken by the revelation, but had decided they would stay together.
‘‘Only death is going to separate us. All this happened because God wanted it to happen,’’ said Adriana, although she admitted things would have been different had they known of their real relationship before they fell in love.
‘‘We had a family meeting and told everyone that we are going to remain husband and wife, whatever anyone might think,’’ she said. ‘‘We have so many plans together, nothing is going to break us up.’’
They said they planned to meet up with their mother soon, and did not blame her for abandoning them. The couple had never officially married, and will be unable to do so now under Brazilian law.