A Utah couple who are also first cousins
has crossed state lines into Colorado to get married.
Angie is my first love and she was my first kiss.
She's the first person
I've experienced any genuine, real romantic feelings for.
I was always drawn to him. When I look at her face,
I get this type of spiritual connection.
In fact, sometimes I'll just stare at her.
There's a magnetism between us.
He's a part of me.
He's my favorite cousin.
My mother and her father are brother and sister.
I've known Angie my whole life
and I've known the family my whole life.
Since we're cousins,
we have this deeper sense of familiarity
that you wouldn't achieve with someone else.
I don't have those type of reservations
that I would with meeting a new woman.
I trust her, I know her, I know her mind,
I know her heart.
You look so cute and I look so weird.
I started having feelings for Micheal in the second grade,
it just felt really natural to wanna be with him.
We snuck off to kiss,
and I remember that she was the first person
I remember really falling in love with.
After fourth grade, we were at a family reunion
and we were holding hands, staring into each other's eyes,
and looking at him felt like I was looking at my own soul
shining back at me with all this love and radiance,
and just the glory of the sun smiling at me,
and we said we love each other.
I stopped her mother in the hallway,
looked her in the eye and said, I'm gonna marry Angie.
Then when we were 10,
we got caught kissing by one of our cousins.
My mother found out and I got in trouble.
From them on, we felt like we were kept apart.
Now that we're adults and single,
it's been a dream come true,
I never thought I'd be able to be with Micheal in this way.
It is a real love story, I truly love her in every sense.
Usually you wouldn't think
of two first cousins being in love,
but that's what's happening between us.
Okay, Micheal, Angie, it's good to meet both of you.
Thank you very much.
And you guys have been listening so far,
so you know the general consensus among this audience,
and you know the general consensus among the population
is that it's unnatural for first cousins to marry.
I mean, you know that, right?
Sure, there's something there.
A little taboo there, a little stigma attached to that.
Right.
But that's a western culture thing, for sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right, and that's true.
This is a culture specific thing
because in many cultures, West Africa, India,
different parts of the world,
there are parts of the world where it's actually preferred
that you marry within the bloodline.
But you don't live there, you live here.
Correct, we live here,
we live in the United States of America.
Yeah, and in western culture,
it is, in most states, against the law.
It's against the law in all states but 19,
so almost half.
Yeah, well, there are some with age restrictions,
there are some where it's just straight out outlawed.
And we have a list, so I can go over that in a minute.
You guys say this started
when you were seven, eight years old, correct?
Correct.
And you felt like you were each other's soulmates
at that time.
But yet you both went off
and got married to someone else.
I think God works in mysterious ways,
your higher power, or however you wanna phrase it.
And we are fated to be together,
you can see that that's clearly happening,
but not maybe at that time.
We were in different states for a long time.
I was in Utah and he was in Texas,
so there was no way for us to get together
and even discover that our feelings were the same
our whole lives.
You two were actually caught kissing
at a family reunion right?
We got caught kissing a couple times,
and even once I stopped her mother, my aunt,
and she said, uh, no, you can't, I'm sorry,
but you can be friends.
And I was just completely dejected and left like,
that doesn't make any sense,
you just dashed my hopes and dreams right there,
but I had the last laugh.
(audience laughs)