My Mom Was Thrilled I Married My Stepbrother & Our Entire Family Supports Our Relationship

Matilda Eriksson, 23, told Yahoo! News Australia that she and her husband, Samuli, 27, became stepsiblings in 2019, when her mother and his father got married. In 2021, Samuli took an opportunity to kiss Matilda, and their relationship took a turn.

"I responded right away with passion," Matilda told Yahoo! News. "It took us two weeks to start dating after that and he basically moved in with me right away. It felt good and natural immediately."

Matilda, who is from Finland, said she began feeling a bit awkward about the situation soon after the first kiss. "I was confused and in love at the same time and honestly I really didn't know what to do. Thinking about the fact that he still is my step brother and also I thought about other people's opinions," she said.

When the couple decided to go public with their relationship, their parents were immediately thrilled for them. Their friends were not as convinced, though.

Matilda said that she even thought that Samuli's dad was hoping the pair would end up together. She noted that it was her mother who helped her to "get my thoughts in order."

"She told me to do whatever I felt was the most right in that moment, putting everything else aside and to follow my heart, and that led me to marry Samuli," she told Yahoo! News. "We both have been in a few long relationships before but never felt like this with anyone."

Thanks to the somewhat unconventional nature of their relationship, the couple needed to be sure that they weren't doing anything illegal before they got married. They started with Google, but the information they found was outdated.

"First we found some false, old information that it would be illegal, but gladly one of my sister's closest friends is a law student and she told us that there would be no problem if we wanted to get married," Matilda told Yahoo! News.

Matilda maintains a TikTok account where she shares videos of the couple, including shots of their wedding and some videos explaining their love story. Some people think their relationship is just like everyone else's. Others can't quite get on board.

People in the comment section on the original wedding video, which has 5.3 million views, have a lot to say.

Some went for pop culture references. "What in the clueless?" reads one comment.

"What in the Colleen Hoover?" another person wrote.

"It's giving Life With Derek," someone else commented.

Others were all for it.

"this makes me incredibly happy for you," someone commented.

"It'd only be weird if they grew up together but they met as adults," someone else pointed out.

"No need to split holidays. Sounds like a win to me!" another person wrote.

And, of course, some people want nothing to do with this kind of relationship.

"Name something that isn't technically illegal but feels sort of illegal," one person pointed out.

"And the only line of defense they would have is 'he's not my REAL brother,'" another commenter wrote.

"coulda kept that to ya self," someone else suggested.

Matilda and Samuli are happy together and aren't interested in how other people talk about them. They did not grow up together as siblings and met as adults. They contend that their relationship isn't that different from many others.

Matilda has stitched herself on TikTok with others who reacted negatively to her original video, and she just smiles and laughs at their opinions. She's happy and confident in her relationship and doesn't worry what others think.