Former Jehovah’s Witness whose parents were SIBLINGS opens up about their twisted relationship – which saw them having SEVEN children together
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A former Jehovah’s Witness whose parents were siblings has opened up about their twisted relationship, which saw them having seven children together.
Vanessa, from northeast Ohio, appeared on a recent episode of the We’re All Insane podcast alongside host Devorah Roloff.
The 46-year-old explained how she was ‘one of seven children born to a brother and sister’ – a fact she found out aged nine.
She said: ‘I was in third grade. I didn’t really understand whether that was right or wrong. I didn’t know. My grandmother was happy that her children found somebody to love and it just kind of became normal.’
In the clip, which was shared to YouTube earlier this week, Vanessa dished on the bizarre family dynamic.
She began by explaining how her parents got legally married in 1974, adding: ‘I guess back then they didn’t have to show a lot of ID.
‘They had different last names. They did have different fathers… They swore under oath they were no close of kin than second cousin and they walked out with a marriage license.’
Vanessa said that her mother was 19 years old at the time and her father was 28.
It was around this time that her parents enrolled as Jehovah’s Witnesses, which caused friction among the congregation due to the incestual nature of the relationship.
‘The entire congregation knew… I know people there didn’t like it but if you talk against a decision you’re going to get labeled an apostate so they kind of had to deal with it,’ she explained.
Discussing her relationship with her parents, she said: ‘My mom had some anger problems. She was physically abusive and emotionally abusive so I was never really that close to her.’
Vanessa’s dad moved in and out the house due to the ‘rage and anger,’ but the couple continued to welcome children together in quick succession.
One of the couple’s sons died at just three months old of walking pneumonia, but within a year they welcomed a fifth child.
Vanessa said the congregation advised her mom not to have any more kids at the risk of getting shunned – but she ignored their warnings.
Her parents welcomed their sixth child in 1989, when her mom was 40 years old, but the boy suffered a series of health issues from birth.
‘There was a problem with him. Apparently he did not have a properly structured urinary system and he had a dead kidney…,’ Vanessa detailed.
‘He ended up living through everything. He had three surgeries [before he was six months old] and the dead kidney was removed. They were able to fix everything.’
Two of her siblings were also born with crossed eyes, which were successfully corrected, as she asserted: ‘Other than that none of us kids really had any serious issues.’
Vanessa explained that despite her advancing years, her mom still ‘wanted more babies.’
‘My dad wasn’t living there anymore so she was just going out in the evening to his apartment for the sole purpose of having a seventh child,’ she said.
But after giving birth again despite the warnings she was forced to move congregations to avoid being shunned from the religion.
‘She then, at 42 years old, wanted to try for an eighth baby but her brother said no. He was done,’ she said.
Vanessa concluded: ‘So my mother was pregnant by her brother a total of nine times – seven live births and two miscarriages – and still got to be a Jehovah Witness in good standing.’
Content retrieved from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12856429/Former-Jehovahs-Witness-parents-SIBLINGS-children.html.
