Tragedy hits first cousins who had baby together after they fell in love and married

A woman who and had a baby with her has spoken of her grief after her partner died.

Angie Peang has been left since Michael Lee passed away following a drug overdose after their whirlwind romance, which began when the pair "kissed in a closet" during their childhood. Angela, whose dad is the older brother of Lee's mum, said when they defiantly broke the news of their relationship.

Michael, who was a car salesman, died just 14 months after he and Angie welcomed their baby son Eric. Speaking in a candid interview this week, Angie said: "There are other normal people out there who, like we did, just happen to find themselves in love with their cousin at a time and place where it's not popular or accepted.

"It helps me cope with Michael's death by sharing our love story. I don't feel like I'm just one isolated, perverted weirdo. We get to be a part of this thing that's so big and out of the ordinary and so special and so rare."

READ MORE:

Angie and Michael launched a petition to have marriage among first cousins legalised in . When this failed, they decided to tie the knot in Colorado - one of the 18 states where there are no legal restrictions to the marriage of cousins. This was shortly after reuniting in 2018 following drifting apart despite their childhood kisses.

Despite having children already from her previous marriage, . They defied relatives with the move but Michael passed away in July 2021, just 14 months after Eric's birth.

The tragedy has now encouraged Angie, 44, to campaign for the normalisation and legalisation of first cousin marriages across the US. She and Michael were from a conservative Mormon family in Eagle Mountain in Utah, which is less than 40 miles from Salt Lake City.

The latest data, published by the UK's University of Bradford in February, has established that children born to first cousins are twice as likely to carry recessive disorders as those born to unrelated parents. That's a rate of 6 percent to the rest of the population's three percent. They are also more likely to experience speech and learning difficulties and have poorer developmental outcomes.

But Eric was born with no complications, Angie, who is an artist, says. In the interview with , she described Michael as an excellent father, who loved spending time with his son despite the stigma.

Angie added: "Because we didn't spend much time growing up together, it circumnavigated the incest taboo. Honestly, there were several factors that brought us together besides physicality. We had similar looks, character traits, and it felt natural and meant to be."