Did Angie and Michael First Cousins Have a Baby
Michael Lee and Angela Peang can hardly wait for the nativity of their beginning kid — even if it results in them spending time backside bars.
The hubby and wife from Eagle Mountain, Utah, are first cousins: Peang'southward father is the older brother of Lee's mother.
Since the baby'south existence proves they had sex, they could face up to $10,000 in fines and five years in prison house, because intercourse between cousins is illegal in their home land, due to the long-held fear of birth defects. (According to a 2018 Columbia University study, the chances of cousins having a genetic disorder is 4 to 7%, compared to 3 to 4% for non-related couples.)
Just the 38-year-one-time parents-to-be, set to appear in an upcoming episode of the WeTV series "Extreme Love," are confident that their little boy, due May 22, will exist delivered safely and in good health, following tests to rule out any disability.
"We had to do our due diligence considering everyone was maxim to us, 'No, don't do that,' and 'It'southward so risky and irresponsible,'" Peang, who's five months meaning, exclusively tells The Post. "And so we did genetic testing and plant out it was OK for us to parent together."
The controversial couple stick to the "Heed your own business" defense when information technology comes to their marriage — "I feel the aforementioned about gay marriage, even though I'yard not gay," says Peang. They also point out that unions betwixt cousins are legal in more than half of United states states, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California and Colorado. (Canada and Europe besides allow offset cousins to wed.)
They avoided problems in Utah by tying the knot on a twenty-four hour period trip to Grand Junction, Colorado, last March.
"We got married, not because we're religious, simply to protect ourselves legally," says Peang, a stay-at-dwelling house mom who has three children from her first marriage. "Nosotros also wanted to legitimize our relationship to console members of our family, hoping information technology would put them at ease."
Indeed, it has been an uphill battle securing the blessing of relatives. Some accept been suspicious of the bond between Lee and Peang since the cousins were fresh-faced 2nd-graders.
The lovebirds didn't meet until they were vii. Peang's father, who worked for the State Department, was often stationed overseas, and then she grew up in places equally far afield as Pakistan and Nihon. Lee, meanwhile, lived close to Salt Lake Urban center in Utah.
That fateful first encounter happened around 1989, when Lee'southward family unit visited the Peangs at their home outside Washington, DC.
"There was an instant connexion between us," says Lee, a car salesman. "Nosotros were very much simpatico.
"Angie was smart, adventurous and curious," he says. "While other kids were into video games, she was interested in making little things or playing little games that were very much unique and different from those of other children."
Peang remembers their first clandestine kiss and caress, at simply vii years old, in a darkened closet.
"We were dull-dancing together and I was kind of worried nosotros'd go caught and be in trouble," she says. "But information technology just felt right."
Then much and then that Lee told his female parent that he was going to one solar day marry his crush.
"My aunt said, 'No, yous can't ally Angie,' " Peang says. "'But you tin can be good friends.'"
The youngsters met again a year later and the spark reignited.
'I was kind of worried nosotros'd get caught and exist in trouble. Simply it just felt right.'
"We were inseparable," Peang recalls of that family unit reunion in Oregon. "The adults wouldn't say, 'Where is Michael?' They'd say, 'Where are Michael and Angie?' It felt like a soul connection — as if I could meet myself reflected in him."
The cousins went to separate colleges before marrying their corresponding get-go spouses. Peang gave birth to two daughters, at present 17 and 16, and a son, 12. Lee and his wife, who were married for four years, had no children.
Social media drew them together after they each divorced, Peang in 2010 and Lee two years later. In October 2018, Peang, who had since settled in Utah, was delighted to find out on Facebook that Lee was living there, too. She sent him a altogether greeting and they stayed in touch.
Soon, they were reunited at their grandma's Christmas party.
"I went simply to see Michael," admits Angie. "I don't actually mesh with the personalities of that side of the family unit because they're a lot more than stubborn, conservative and annoying.
"Only, as shortly as I set optics on him over again, I knew I'd done the correct thing."
It was love at third sight. The cousins couldn't cease talking and, past the end of the party, were getting physical.
"I put my arms effectually his waist and held them there for a picayune longer than you lot would with a typical family member," says Angie. "My body language was signaling to him."
At first, Michael proceeded with circumspection. "I didn't want to set myself up for heartbreak," he explains.
Nevertheless, the cousins started dating and didn't effort to hide information technology from Peang's children. "Instead of telling them, nosotros let them find what was going on by cuddling and holding hands," says Peang. "My younger girl was pretty upset and started crying — probably considering she was going to take to adjust to a new person coming into the family — but now she is cool nigh our human relationship."
The couple's parents gradually came around to the idea. Simply last January, when the sweethearts posted a graphic photo on Facebook of themselves French kissing, a small but song number of family members labeled them "icky."
They include Cathy, a cousin in Wyoming who besides appears on "Extreme Love." On camera, despite their protestations of beloved, she disowns them.
"I couldn't care less," says Lee. "People [similar Cathy] should only get angry about things that actually affect them."
Unabashed, the duo launched a petition to legalize marriage between cousins in Utah. They've so far secured 1,500 signatures, only they demand tens of thousands more to exist taken seriously.
"Our strongest argument is that Utah is in the minority with this law," says Peang, who, like her married man, was raised Mormon, in which a small fraction of adherents still practice polygamy. "You'd recollect they'd want to be more than mainstream and less strange, considering what they already practice with polygamy."
The newlyweds were delighted when claret tests confirmed information technology would exist safe to conceive a child. "Information technology was such a relief," says Peang. "At present we are planning for a wonderful hereafter together."
Meanwhile, she says, their sex life is smoking.
"We have a potent allure and it'due south very mutually satisfying," concludes the mom-to-be. "You accept the erotic side, the friendship side, the family side and the spiritual connection.
"Information technology'south a supercharged relationship."
The episode of "Extreme Love" featuring Peang and Lee airs January. 17 at 10 p.thou. on WeTV. All other "Extreme Dearest" Season two episodes will air Fridays at 10/9c on WeTV.
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Source: https://nypost.com/2020/01/08/meet-the-kissing-cousins-who-could-face-prison-for-having-a-baby/
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