Growing up, our relationship with our siblings can be complicated. This can get even more complicated when step-siblings are brought into the picture. Sometimes these people get along as if they were actually siblings, other times – not so much. Then, there’s what happened in this family. This girl from Finland recently announced that she is getting married – to her stepbrother. According to the happy couple, they are very much in love, and their parents couldn’t be more excited either.
Girl In Finland Marries Her Stepbrother
Step-siblings are a pretty common family dynamic nowadays. After all, with divorce rates remaining high, it’s not unusual for two people to meet who already each have children of their own. Blending two families can be a tricky subject, as well. After all, it often involves at least one set of kids having to move somewhere new.
Also, both have to get used to having a whole new set of siblings to co-exist with as well as another authority figure in their home that they aren’t biologically related to. Whether or not the children will all get along is definitely a big cause of stress for the parents. (1) These parents didn’t have to worry too much about their children getting along, however. In fact, the wife’s daughter and the husband’s son hit it off right away. More than just being stepbrother and sister, however, the two fell in love. Now, they are planning to get married.
How This Happened
Matilda Eriksson is 23 years old and got married to the love of her life, her 27-year-old stepbrother Samuli. The pair met, naturally, through their parent’s relationship. Matilda’s mom married Samuli’s dad in 2019. The two now official stepsiblings met at Matilda’s mom’s 50th birthday party. Things moved pretty quickly after they met, as their first meeting felt something like lightning between the two of them.
“I responded right away with passion,” recalled Matilda. “It took us two weeks to start dating after that and he basically moved in with me right away. It felt good and natural immediately.”
The young couple got married on July 30, 2022, in Finland. Samuli even put “brusband” in his Instagram bio. (2)
Read: Woman Refuses To Be Friends With Brother’s Wife Who Used To Bully Her In High School
Mixed Reviews
The couple says that their parents have been extremely supportive of their relationship. Matilda even said that she thinks that their parents secretly were hoping that they would get together. Her friends, however, were a bit harder to convince. For them, it was difficult to see their friend go from calling someone that they were first introduced to as “stepbrother” to “boyfriend”, let alone fiancé or husband.
“Some of our friends were first a bit doubtful and [were] kind of judging. I think it was because of the confusion that someone I had been calling stepbrother has to now be called my boyfriend,” she said. It was her mom, Matilda said, who helped Matilda sort out her own thoughts on the matter without letting her friends’ negative comments or skepticism get in the way. “My mum told me to do whatever I felt was the most right in that moment, putting everything else aside and to follow my heart, and that led me to marry Samuli.”
Matilda explained that both she and her new husband had been in more than one long relationship before. None of those, however, could compare to this relationship and how they felt about each other. This is why they decided to be together and get married, despite the backlash they knew they were to face from others. They say they are a match made in heaven.
Is It Legal?
Of course, when the talk of marriage came up, there were more doubts to be had. After all, though they are stepsiblings and not genetically related whatsoever, they still weren’t sure if their relationship was actually legal. Matilda began doing some internet research, which at first disheartened her. She found some information saying that it was, in fact, illegal for a stepbrother and stepsister to get married. That information turned out to be old and outdated, however. One of Matilda’s sister’s closest friends is a law student and did some digging for the couple. She found that no, there would be no issues for the pair to wed. (3)
Soon after, they got engaged – with both Matilda and Samuli proposing to each other at the same time. Now, they have been married for nearly three and a half months. They are apparently talking about having children, however, this is not something they plan on doing right away.
Keep Reading: Half-Siblings Are Siblings. Period.
Sources
- “Woman reveals why she married her stepbrother – and her mum doesn’t mind.” NZ Herald. November 8, 2022.
- Instagram. samulieriksson