Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@realestatemommaz
Topics: Real Life, Sex and Relationships, TikTok
Rhiannon Ingle
One woman was left absolutely 'sick to her stomach' after that discovering her husband of 17 years is her cousin.
Celina Quinones, 37, and her husband Joseph, 44, first crossed paths at a Halloween party and, after agreeing to go on a date, they became utterly 'inseparable'.
The Colorado native married Joseph after just a matter of months of meeting and have three children together, but after a decade of marriage, she made the bombshell discovery that they were actually related.
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The woman told Truly that she and her hubby didn't have a clue they were actually relatives and she only found out after looking into their family heritage and ancestry.
Recalling the moment, she said: "We decided to do our DNA test and that's when we found out."
"I was a little sick to my stomach," Celina continued. "In my head, I thought we were supposed to get divorced."
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She and Joseph's shared ancestry results showed that they have a match of 62 cM, or centimorgan - a unit for measuring genetic linkage.
In short, the results found that the married couple both shared the same exact ancestor eight generations back.
"The DNA test has confirmed that we are third to fifth cousins," Celina explained.
Even though the proof was clearly in the pudding, Joseph was initially in 'complete denial'.
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While the pair did initially think about divorce after making the life-changing discovery, Celina later considered the effect that it would have on their three kids and, eventually, they agreed to carry on with their marriage.
She explained: "I started more thinking to myself like 'Hey for our children, for our household we need to keep it together and stay together'.
"It was a pivotal moment for us because you're not supposed to look at your cousin or be with your cousin and I didn't mean it but it happened that way."
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Joseph added: "We've gone this far and it's til death do us part in my books so I wasn't gonna leave over something like that."
The couple have since chronicled their story on TikTok, where they have been met by some nasty comments from
people who've branded their marriage as 'sick'.
However, such comments clearly haven't had the desired effect, with Joseph saying: "To the people who were giving us negative comments, it's easy to speak on the outside without knowing the whole inside story.
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"We found out almost 11 years later, three kids later... It's just not something you break up and walk away from."
The pair are all set to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary next month and said that their kids have accepted the unconventional situation.