A WOMAN was left reeling after she discovered her close connection to her date.
She explained that she matched with a “charming” guy online but was shocked to learn his full name.
In a Reddit post, user ThrowRA_0124 revealed that her online match turned out to be a member of her extended family.
She explained their initial interaction and shared the moment she realized their family connection.
“I got back into dating and I started talking to this guy and honestly, the conversation was great and we got along really really well,” the poster said.
“We had a lot of things in common for what we were looking for and just all around just really good vibes.”
However, the Redditor soon found out that she had more than she would like in common with her match.
She explained that their were some hints to suggest their close proximity but nothing that made her think they were in the same family unit.
“He did live in a town that part of my family was from but I mean, I really didn’t think anything of it but I also don’t know much of that side of my family,” she said.
She explained that she isn’t “super close” with the family members in that area and had never spent a lot of time with them.
Still not spotting the warning signs, the pair took their conversation a step further.
“We took it off the dating app and then we decided to FaceTime and we were on the phone for an hour,” she wrote.
“His last name got brought up and I just got really quiet.”
She said her match asked if she knew his cousin and she realised he was talking about her cousin.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh’ in my head, I start internally panicking and I am just staring into the phone blinking,” she recalled.
“I told him that I think it’s best that we go to bed and then we should just stop having a conversation.”
She ended the call abruptly, refusing to answer her match when he asked her surname.
ACROSS the globe, more than 10 percent of marriages are between first or second cousins.
In the UK, there’s no legal bar to two cousins having a relationship.
That means that if end up falling for the children of your aunts and uncles, there’s nothing stopping you from eventually tying the knot.
If you’re over the age of 18, you can do this without the consent of your legal guardian or parent.
First-cousin marriages were once quite common in Europe, especially among the elite.
“I just said I really have to go [and] I ran to Facebook and immediately go to this cousin’s [profile] and sure enough, there he is,” she said.
The Redditor explained that she blocked the man’s profile picture and deleted him from the dating app.
“I was freaking out so hard because this is so wrong,” she said.
However, she did add that there was no blood relation between her and her former match, revealing that they were connected through marriage.
“It’s my dad’s sister’s husband’s family somehow, I think it might be his brother‘s child,” she said.
“So while him and I share a cousin, we’re not actually related,
“It’s still weird and I’m sad and disappointed but I’m glad that we found this out before anything went anywhere.”
She explained that they had arranged to go on a date before she made the realisation.
“Thank goodness we cleared all that up before we met in person because I simply would’ve drove my car car off a bridge if anything would’ve happened,” she said.
Reddit users shared their thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
“It was a simple mistake that you caught before any harm was done. Arguably, given that he’s not a blood relation, there’s not much harm that could have been done anyway,” pointed out one reader.
“I had this happen with a cousin’s cousin once. Noticed they had that entire family as mutual friends on Facebook. Never did meet up or anything, but still kind of funny,” wrote another Redditor.
“You freaked, blocked him, and are massively overreacting. Poor b*****d is probably so damned confused, but honestly, better for him. You don’t sound very mature,” commented a third person.
