Author: Mr. Jingles
22 February 2021 14:25
Tags: marriages, famous people, interesting facts
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It's amazing how often marriages between relatives still take place these days. And many of the celebrities on this list are not some kind of perverts at all - they are outstanding and respected members of society who either entered into a relationship with a relative by chance, or fell in love at a family celebration and did not care about the rules. Either way, it's pretty weird. So, here are 14 famous people who married their relatives.
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Kevin Bacon
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Everyone knows Kevin Bacon, because since his debut in “Menagerie” in 1978, the actor has been actively acting and has appeared in such major projects as “Apollo 13” and “Footloose.” He starred in so many films that there was even a game called “Six Steps to Kevin Bacon”, in which you had to find a connection between Bacon and any other actor in no more than 6 transitions. But Bacon had no idea that he and actress Kyra Sedgwick were connected by something more than marriage—ties of blood. The couple, who have been married for almost 30 years, are relatives in the 9th generation. This was discovered by Henry Louis Gates on the TV show Find Your Roots.
Consequences
The main reason why relationships between relatives are undesirable is the risk of having sick offspring. But, second cousins are considered distant, so there is a chance of having a healthy baby. The fact is that the greater the degree of relationship, the more similar genes there are. That is why the further the relatives are, the lower the risk of having a baby with pathologies. In order to assess the risks, it is necessary to take a genetic blood test.
Henry VIII
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The same mad Tudor who beheaded half of his wives. He wanted to divorce his first wife, but the Pope did not allow it, and then the king disconnected England from the Roman Catholic Church. After which he married again and again and over time he became increasingly fat and crazy. His story has been brought to the big screen several times. Perhaps none of his marriages succeeded because all his wives were his relatives - all six. In chronological order: Catherine of Aragon, relative in the 4th generation; Anne Boleyn, in the 7th generation; Jane Seymour, in the 5th generation; Anna of Cleves, in the 9th generation; Catherine Howard, in the 7th generation and Catherine Parr, in the 3rd generation.
People are connected
Today, marriages between first cousins are not as common in our society, but in many closed societies and closely knit communities, the likelihood of a spouse being at least a 6th, 7th, or 8th cousin is still high. But from a scientific point of view, incest refers to reproduction between much closer relatives. Meanwhile, one of the main disadvantages of inbreeding is that it reduces the amount of gene flow into a population and therefore slows down the development of genetic diversity.
Genetic diversity increases the lifespan of a population, increasing the likelihood that some individuals will survive a catastrophe such as major climate change or a deadly pandemic.
Relationships described as "blood" are those between couples who are at least second cousins or closer relatives. But there are huge health risks for the children of such couples. As the Daily Mail reported in a 2018 article, first-cousin marriage is a key factor in an average of two child deaths every week.
In calculating the figures, the researchers relied on the fact that a total of 545 boys or girls born to consanguineous couples died at an early age in the last five years, according to the UK Department of Education. Thousands of other children born in consanguineous marriages survive, but with horrific physical or mental problems. These include blindness, deafness, blood disorders, heart or kidney failure, lung or liver problems, and a host of often incurable and complex neurological disorders.
In the past, royal dynasties were big proponents of marriage “within the family” to preserve the purity of the bloodline. The Spanish Habsburgs followed this practice particularly zealously, resulting in a noticeable jaw defect.
Read even more fascinating articles about the latest news from the world of science and high technology on our channel in Yandex.Zen. There are regularly published articles that are not on the site.
Thus, the BBC reports that British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the population as a whole. In Birmingham, around one in 10 children from first-cousin marriages either die in infancy or develop a serious, lifelong disability caused by genetic conditions.
Cousins share 12.5% of their DNA. (Siblings and parents and children share about 50 percent.) Thus, any child born to a first cousin will have a fairly significant share of similar genes. And this can be a problem—children born in first-cousin marriages may suffer from so-called “recessive” genetic disorders that are associated with severe disability and early death.
If you inherit one gene variant, you will not get sick or die. However, if a child inherits the same gene variant from each of his or her consanguineous parents, he or she is at higher risk of health problems. In marriages between first cousins, this number can rise to one in eight because those who are related to each other are more likely to carry the same defects in their DNA.
Franklin Roosevelt
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was probably the most influential US president. He is the only president in the history of the country who was elected for 4 terms. He led the country out of the Great Depression with the New Deal, repealed Prohibition, and led the country through World War II. His wife Eleanor was also a prominent political figure and achieved much in the field of human rights. She was a fifth-degree relative of her husband, and President Theodore Roosevelt was her uncle.
Woody Allen
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During his rich career, Allen has worked with a huge number of actors, including Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johansson. He received four Oscars and the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding achievement in film. But the director has plenty of haters, mainly thanks to his relationship with his own stepdaughter, Soon-Yi Previn, to whom he is still married. There is a 35 year difference between the spouses.
Thomas Jefferson
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Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, author of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia, and the country's third president. He also married his third cousin, Martha Wales Skelton. They had six children, but most of them died in childhood, and Martha herself died at 33. Jefferson never remarried, and it was only after many years that he entered into a relationship with his own slave, Sally Hemings, who bore him at least six more children.
Royal traditions
Marriage between first cousins is not legal in 30 Western countries, and many countries have restrictions on such marriages. Meanwhile, in the history of European monarchies there are a huge number of examples when the number of royal children (or lack thereof) decided the fate of the country for several centuries to come.
Moreover, in almost all known cultures, since ancient times there has been a ban on marriage between brothers and sisters, parents and children. So, in Thailand, Mexico, Central Africa and Ancient Egypt, this rule applied to everyone except the rulers.
And in the royal houses of Europe, marriages with first and second cousins were widespread. You don’t have to look far for examples, as National Geographic writes:
Let us at least remember the Prussian Hohenzollerns, the French Bourbons, the British royal family, the Spanish Habsburgs, whose dynasty ended in 1700 with the death of Charles II... The latter had so many physical and mental disabilities that he began to walk only at the age of four, and to speak at the age of eight , had difficulty chewing even as an adult and could not conceive a child.
The Siamese king Rama V (pictured with his wife (sister) and children) did not recognize any prohibitions.
Rudolph Giuliani
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It was Rudy Giuliani who transformed New York from a dingy, crime-ridden city into the shining, upscale metropolis it is today. Before becoming mayor of New York, Giuliani prosecuted and fought organized crime. He secured a life sentence for the famous gangster John Gotti, which led to his victory in the mayoral elections. He also took part in the presidential elections, but at some point dropped out of the race. Perhaps because of the information that was made public by the YouTube star Obama Girl, it turned out that Giuliane was married to your full sister Regina Perugia. They divorced in 1982 after 14 years of marriage.
Genes are stubborn things
What do we have with the union of two people who are radically different in their origins? First of all, a number of gene differences, which together destroy the complex of genes created over more than one millennium. That is, the child “takes” a little genes from his parents, creating a new gene complex, which, alas, does not always turn out to be as viable as possible. The reason is the absence of a centuries-old process of adaptation. The historical territory of residence of the nationalities to which the husband and wife belong, or more precisely, its remoteness, plays a huge role.
A child, in whose genes the synthesis of two different gene complexes has occurred, for a full existence, also needs an appropriate habitat, modeled taking into account historical territorial features. The more differences there are, the harder it is for descendants to adapt, which entails an increase in childhood morbidity and even mortality. The most dangerous union in terms of the health of the heirs is considered to be a marriage between representatives of the white and black races.
Greta Scacchi
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This list just had to have someone incredibly sexy, and in the 80s, Greta Scacchi was a real sex symbol. The Australian of Italian descent has appeared in explicit scenes more than once during her film career, including an unforgettable episode from “Presumed Innocent” with Harrison Ford. She was so irresistible that even her cousin Carlo Mantegazza could not resist. They had a son, and not so long ago the couple got married. Their union caused a great stir both in society and in the family, which is why her career quickly faded away.
Are consanguineous marriages allowed in other countries?
For example, in Tajikistan, every third family is created according to kinship. Each region of the country has its own reasons for consanguineous unions. In some places it is forbidden to create a couple outside the clan, in others the union is intended to improve the well-being of the clan.
North Africa and the Middle East lead the world in the number of consanguineous marriages. But here the law “survival of the fittest” comes into play, and with a high birth rate, a high percentage of child mortality remains. Carriers of defective genes often have reproductive dysfunction.
In Russia there are no exact statistical data on this issue, but the estimated number of consanguineous unions is about 1%.
Albert Einstein
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The surname Einstein has practically become a household name, synonymous with intelligence and genius. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics and developed many significant physical theories. The majority of the world's population is not smart enough to even understand the true meaning of the formula E=MC2. Such a brilliant man, however, was rather clueless in everyday matters. They say he had a whole closet of identical suits and shoes, and he also painted the door of his house red so as not to get lost. He also married his second cousin Elsa.
Is it possible to marry a second cousin? And where can I find out that the children will be healthy?
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Saddam Hussein
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The former Iraqi president was a brutal dictator with many wives, one of whom, Sajida Tulfah, was his cousin. Hussein was a major figure in Iraq, ruling with extreme ruthlessness and allegedly responsible for the deaths of more than 250,000 people. In 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
Stockholm syndrome
Sometimes the cause of painful love dependence on feelings for a brother can be the so-called Stockholm syndrome. That is, when a brother’s openly negative behavior and his aggressive attitude towards his sister, his beatings and regular rapes lead to the realization that you begin to love and justify your offender. This is a purely psychological deviation that cannot be eradicated in ordinary life by any words or arguments of reason; it requires the help of a specialist, his long and painstaking work. Only the intervention of a psychologist can help get rid of this abnormal addiction.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Edgar Allan Poe's work has always been considered creepy, so it's not surprising that he married his cousin Virginia when he was 27. However, the fact that she was only 13 at the time is also creepy. The tragic romantic themes in Poe's violent and bloody works were most likely inspired by Virginia's difficult battle with tuberculosis and her subsequent death.
Jesse James
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Jesse James, one of the most notorious bank robbers of the Old West, was a true monster. Even before robbing banks, he joined a group of Confederate Army guerrillas during the Civil War. Together with his gang, he killed and mutilated hundreds of Union soldiers and their sympathizers with extreme cruelty. During one of the battles, James was shot and nursed by his own cousin, Zerelda "Zee" Mimms. The girl was named after James' mother. They had two children, shortly after which Jesse James was shot by a member of his own gang.
Charles Darwin
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Darwin is best known for his theories about evolution, particularly for popularizing the term natural selection. Despite all the research that Darwin himself did, he clearly did not care about the negative consequences of incest, since he married his cousin Emma Wedgwood. The couple had ten children.
Which relatives are you allowed to marry?
The Family Code does not prohibit registering relationships between half-brothers or cousins, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew. Step-children are those who have neither a father nor a mother in common - these are children from previous marriages of both spouses.
If there is a common relative (father or mother), then it will be either a half-uterine (maternal) or half-consanguineous (paternal) relationship. And since there is such a relationship, then marriage is impossible.
If godparents are not directly related, then marriage between them is possible and the Orthodox Church will sanctify such a union. But church marriage between spiritual relatives is prohibited.
Nowadays, to register a marriage at the registry office, you do not need to present certificates about the degree of relationship, so some couples take advantage of this.
