A PREGNANCY announcement is usually met with messages of love and support but Angie Peng faced only vile hate instead.
Sick messages told the mum-to-be she was evil and that her baby would be ‘born with 10 heads’.
So bitter was the vitriol that Angie, now 44, was forced to turn comments off altogether.
But it wasn’t the pregnancy itself that was generating the hate but how it came about as the father of Angie’s baby is her first cousin Michael.
The couple faced hostility from the moment they announced their relationship from both strangers and their own family.
Angie says: “We posted a video of us kissing on the family Facebook page.
“One family member commented, ‘I’ll never be OK with this, you share the same blood.’
“Another said we were bringing dishonour on the family. That hurt but ultimately we were just two adults in love. What’s so wrong with that?”
Growing up, Angie had always felt drawn to Michael.
She says: “He was 10 months younger than me, but we only saw each other every few years because my dad’s job took us overseas.
“When we were both seven, I saw him at a family party and we both felt an immediate connection.
“We made little rings out of pipe cleaners, which now seems quite symbolic.
“Later, we climbed into a wardrobe, shut the door and shared a kiss.
“His little brother opened the door, saw us and ran off shouting that he knew what we did, it made me wonder if we had done something wrong.
“Later that day, Michael told my mum he was going to marry me, she told him that we could only be good friends.”
But the pair’s bond grew.
Angie, an artist, says: “By the time I was 10, I had short hair, and Michael and I looked so alike, it was like looking at myself.
“Our personalities aligned too; we were both playful and mischievous.
“We’d sneak off, holding hands, desperate to be alone together.
“The other cousins would follow us though and report back to the adults. Eventually, my mum told me not to act so ‘extra’ with Michael.”
The cousins, who are from a large Mormon family, refused to let anyone come between them.
Then, just before Angie left for university aged 17, they both stayed the night at their mutual grandmother’s house.
Angie says: “Michael snuck into my bedroom but nothing intimate happened, we just lay there talking for hours.”
Two years later, Angie married someone else and went on to have three children.
Michael married too, and out of respect for each other’s relationships, the cousins kept their distance from each other.
But after nine years, Angie got divorced.
She began working as a stripper in an unconventional attempt to boost her body image, and had been a single mum for 10 years when, in 2018, Michael’s photo popped up on Facebook.
Angie says: “It turned out we were both living in Utah and his marriage had ended too.
“We started talking online and I started having dreams about him.
My oldest said the relationship wasn’t acceptable
Angie Pen
“When I told him, he said he’d dreamt about me too saying sometimes it was innocent and sometimes sexual.
“One day I asked if he’d marry me and he said, ‘In a heartbeat’.”
They met up soon after at a family gathering and, the following month, in January 2019, shared their first adult kiss.
Angie says: “I didn’t have my kids that day, so we got together at my house.
“Michael was shaking with nerves and I was sweating.
“We ended up kissing passionately for three hours.
“A few weeks later, we made love for the first time. It was sensational – both physically and spiritually.”
Not wanting to waste time, they went online and were horrified to discover that marriage between first cousins in their home state of Utah risked up to five years in prison – but it was legal in nearby Colorado.
Angie says: “It was crazy, it should be legal everywhere. Love is love.”
They decided to do it, but first they had to break news of their relationship to their parents.
Angie insists that despite the initial shock, they all took it well – but Angie’s three children, then aged 17, 15 and 11, didn’t.
Angie says: “My middle child started crying.
“My oldest said the relationship wasn’t acceptable.
“I realised we were hurting people but I was so full of gusto and enthusiasm, I didn’t want to give Michael up. He made me happy.”
Then came their Facebook announcement with the kissing video, which outraged their wider relatives.
But not wanting it to deter them, just two months later, in March 2020, the couple went to Colorado for a civil wedding – one of just 18 states allowing unrestricted marriage between first cousins.
Angie’s children came round in the end.
Can I marry my cousin in the UK?
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.
She says: “There were no guests, no flowers.
“Michael had cold feet the night before; he was sensitive and was freaking out but he loved me so he did it anyway.
“When we uploaded the wedding video to Facebook, someone said that it wasn’t the place to post that, but other family said congratulations.”
The couple later started an online petition calling for marriage between cousins to be made legal.
It was met with more backlash, but Angie felt it was important to have their voices heard.
A few months later, Angie fell pregnant but sadly miscarried at 10 weeks.
She says: “It felt cruel, like a moment for the haters to say, ‘See? That’s what you get.’”
Genetic testing later revealed that while Angie was a carrier of cystic fibrosis, Michael wasn’t, confirming there were no genetic risks to pregnancy.
Soon after, Angie discovered she was carrying again, and in May 2020, their son Eric was born.
I realised we were hurting people but I was so full of gusto and enthusiasm, I didn’t want to give Michael up
Angie Pen
Angie says: “He was perfect. We were smitten.”
But just 14 months later, in July 2021, and after a long-term battle with drug addiction, Michael tragically died of an overdose, leaving Angie heartbroken.
She is now trying to build a life without her soulmate.
She says: “I’ll always tell Eric, who is now five, about his dad.
“Just last month, for the first time, Eric suddenly said to me, ‘Daddy is your cousin’, so I took out a Beatrix Potter book in which Benjamin Bunny marries his cousin.
“I’d bought it when I was pregnant, ready for the day Eric would start asking questions as I always wanted to be honest with him.
“We read the book together and he was fine. If he has more questions, of course I’ll answer them.”
Angie is now admin of a Facebook group for cousins in relationships and is continuing to petition to change the law.
She adds: “Love is love and should be celebrated.
“I loved Michael deeply and am grateful for the time we had together.
“People try to make out that our relationship was wrong and dirty, but it was pure and wonderful. I have no regrets.”
