A pair of twins who were adopted by separate families as babies got married without knowing they were brother and sister, a peer told the House of Lords. A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord Alton said. The peer - who heard of the case from a judge who was involved - said the twins felt an "inevitable attraction". He said the case showed how important it was for children to be able to find out about their biological parents. Details of the identities of the twins involved have been kept secret, but Lord Alton said the pair did not realise they were related until after their marriage. 'Truth will out' The crossbench peer, a former Liberal Democrat MP, raised the couple's case during a House of Lords debate on the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill in December. "They were never told that they were twins," he told the Lords. "They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation." He told the BBC News website that their story raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents. "If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will out," he said. "And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur." Pam Hodgkins, chief executive officer of the charity Adults Affected by Adoption (NORCAP) said there had been previous cases of separated siblings being attracted to each other. "We have a resistance, a very strong incest taboo where we are aware that someone is a biological relative," she said. "But when we are unaware of that relationship, we are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves. 'Incredibly rare' "And of course there is unlikely to be anyone more similar to any individual than their sibling." Mo O'Reilly, director of child placement for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, said the situation was traumatic for the people involved, but incredibly rare. "Thirty or 40 years ago it would have been more likely that twins be separated and, brought up without knowledge of each other," she said. Today, however, adopted children grow up with a greater knowledge of their birth families - and organisations try to place brothers and sisters together. If that were not possible, the siblings would still have some form of contact with each other. "This sad case illustrates why, over the last 20-30 years, the shift to openness in adoption was so important," Ms O'Reilly added. From BBC news
yea i saw this on tv a while ago. it must be damn weird after that.... just think... they probably slept together. and now, itd be hard to show faces to one another lol
they must have slept together it was after the wedding they found out about it , think about the honey moon and prob the sex before the marriage wot happen if the sister concieved a child with the brother??? daddy or uncle, mommy or auntie i feel quite sorry for them, just imagine the trauma but i still dont know how they found out theyre twins??
That is so wierd, maby they know each other for years. And finally after some long time, they decide to mary each other..... And then they are told, that they are twins......-what? And since they slept with each other, they commited incest without knowing that they were related.... And now they know the truth, they cant be together...... -.--noclue
ekk ><....that sounds so weird, i can't believe they found out after the wedding - after they committed incest....
aw this is so sad I was gonna say "hopefully they're adopted" .. but then I was like "oh yeah .. of course not .." D:
love to know how they found this out lol. "Hey you know what I was just thinking? its a weird coincidence that we were both adopted and we both have the same birthday and we both look kinda alike!" "yeah that is pretty weir-- oh shit."
^ lol actually, lots of people can be born on the same day i got a friend who was born on the same day i was, and no, she isnt my sister lol some people know their time of birth so they should be asking "what time were you born? i was born at xx:yy" "...oh sh--"
man... thats messed up.. id be totally ready to go see a psychologist...how do u cope with a situation like this good thing they dont have any kids yet...
ewww....guess they had a lot in common haha....-lol... hey if they did have kids ive always been told that the bb would be like mutants coz they cross the line and the bb would have like 12 fingers and toes...with a hairy chest.... but dunno if its true though...-confused
yeh iv read about this in th news, i do feel sorry for them both, said they loved each other very much too. I do wonder how they suddenly found out that they were related though!??!
there are similar cases goin like this recently~ must be the year that lost families get back together
