text: Couple vow to stay married and meet up with their mother together 
   
   Maria reveals she also had a son called Leandro, Adriana breaks down 
   
   Adriana found her mother through TV show, they were reunited on air 
   
   A woman went in search of her long-lost mother - and discovered she has unknowingly married her own brother. 
   
   Adriana, 39, and her husband Leandro, 37, have been together for seven years and have a six-year-old daughter. 
   
   The Brazilian couple - who didn't want to reveal their surnames - spent their lives trying to find their respective mothers, who were both called Maria, and had both abandoned their children when they were still babies. 
   
   Related: Married couple Leandro and Adriana discovered they are brother and sister - but vow to stay together 
   
   But neither ever imagined - until this week - that the women they had both been searching for could have been the same person. 
   
   Adriana, a cosmetics saleswoman, hadn't seen her mother since she was just one, when she left home leaving her to be raised by the girl's father. 
   
   Meanwhile, truck driver Leandro found out aged eight that his own mother had also abandoned him, and that the woman he knew as his mum was actually his step-mother. 
   
   While Leandro stayed in the same town where he was born in the state of Sao Paulo, southeast Brazil, Adriana moved away to work as a housemaid, was married for 15 years and had three children. 
   
   The pair met for the first time ten years ago after Adriana's marriage broke down and she moved back to her home town, and they soon fell in love and moved in together. 
   
   Discovery: They were both abandoned as infants and spent their lives searching for their mothers called Maria 
   
   Still unable to forget the give up the search for her mother, last month Adriana decided to contact a a radio station in their town to ask for help - and this week the two were reunited live on air. 
   
   But at the end of the interview on Radio Globo's 'The Time Is Now' programme, which specialises in finding lost relatives, the mother revealed she also had a son who didn't know her, Leandro. 
   
   GENETIC SEXUAL ATTRACTION: HOW ESTRANGED RELATIVES CAN MISTAKE KINSHIP FOR ROMANCE 
   
   A phenomenon called genetic sexual attraction can occur when estranged relatives meet for the first time as adults . 
   
   Feelings of intense intimacy can be confused as the brain struggles to associate each other as family . 
   
   When families grow up together, an inherent taboo is created which desensitises them to sexual attraction . 
   
   It is known as the Westermarck effect but is missing from relatives who do not know each other . 
   
   As it becomes clear that it is the same Leandro that she was married to, Adriana is heard weeping uncontrollably: 'I don't believe that you're telling me this. Leandro is my husband,' she sobs. 
   
   At the end of the interview she says: 'Now I'm scared to go home and find out that Leandro doesn't want me any more. I love him so much.' 
   
   Adriana and Leandro - who never married legally - yesterday told Radio Globo that they would stay together, despite the bombshell that they are actually brother and sister. 
   
   Adriana said: 'Only death is going to separate us. All this happened because God wanted it to happen. 
   
   'Of course it would have been different if we had known all this before, but we didn't and we fell in love. 
   
   'We thought it was funny that both our mothers had the same name, but it is a common name so we just thought it was a coincidence. 
   
   'At first we were really knocked by it all. But we had a family meeting and told everyone that we are going to stay husband and wife, whatever anyone might think. 
   
   'We have so many plans together, nothing's going to break us up, nothing.' ||||| Por 40 anos, Adriana esperou ansiosamente pelo momento em que conheceria a mãe, Maria. Inscreveu-se então no site "Anjo dos Encontros", tentando participar do quadro de mesmo nome transmitido diariamente pela Rádio Globo e que promove o reencontro de pessoas com parentes e amigos com quem não têm mais contato. A emoção de falar com a mãe pela primeira vez após tanto tempo, mesmo que pelo telefone e por meio da emissora, foi grande. Mas bem maiores foram a surpresa e o susto de Adriana ao descobrir, nesta mesma conversa, que seu marido, com quem está casada há sete anos e tem uma filha de seis, na verdade é seu irmão, por parte da mesma mãe. 
   
   Para manter a privacidade e, principalmente, preservar a criança, os nomes dos personagens desse drama da vida real, assim como as cidades onde moram e datas foram suprimidos. Maria, a mãe, abandonou a filha fugindo do marido, que sempre a ameaçava e agredia. Na época, Adriana tinha apenas um ano de idade. Para reencontrar a mãe, recorreu ao programa "A Hora é Agora", da Rádio Globo São Paulo, se inscrevendo para participar do "Anjo dos Encontros", criação de Walter Peceniski, especializado em encontrar pessoas desaparecidas e autor do site Good Angels. 
   
   Durante a gravação, Adriana conversava com Walter e Rony Magrini, apresentador da Rádio Globo, quando foi surpreendida pela notícia de que a mãe estava na linha telefônica. Ela começou a chorar e, emocionada, disse à mãe que sentia muita saudade e que esse sentimento ficava ainda mais intenso no Dia das Mães. As duas prometeram, então, que iriam se encontrar. Quando tudo se encaminhava para um final feliz, Adriana pediu para fazer mais uma pergunta à Maria: 
   
   "Mãe, você teve outros filhos além de mim?", questionou. 
   
   "Sim, (...) tive o 'Leandro', mas foi com outro homem, não era seu pai", respondeu Maria. 
   
   Ao ouvir o relato da mãe, Adriana entrou em desespero e começou a chorar compulsivamente. 
   
   "Eu não acredito que você está me falando isso. Leandro é o meu marido", disse. 
   
   O apresentador do programa, Rony Magrini, interveio e perguntou sobrenome e filiação paterna de Leandro, confirmando a inesperada revelação: sem saber, Adriana casara-se com o próprio irmão. E com ele tivera uma filha, hoje com seis anos e saudável. 
   
   Mais tarde, um pouco mais calma, Adriana revelou que já desconfiava estar casada com o irmão por causa de uma das certidões de nascimento do marido (ele tem duas), que trazia o nome de Maria como mãe. No entanto, em outro documento do marido, a informação sobre a mãe não constava. Segundo ela, a partir daquele momento, a busca pela mãe ganhou mais um motivo: tirar a dúvida que a atormentava. 
   
   A reportagem da Rádio Globo esteve na casa de Adriana e Leandro e entrevistou o casal dois dias após a gravação. Eles ainda estavam abalados mas tinham reunido a família e comunicado que permanecerão juntos, já que não tinha consciência do parentesco quando se conheceram e se apaixonaram. Pela legislação brasileira, o casamento não tem validade. Mas Adriana e Leandro jamais oficializaram a união em cartório e nem religiosamente. ||||| One of the happiest moments in a Brazilian woman's life quickly turned into one of the worst when she reconnected with her biological mother and discovered she had a brother she had never known about. Unfortunately, she had also been married to him for seven years. 
   
   The Daily Mail reports that married couple Adriana, 39, and Leandro, 37, were both given up as babies and had been looking for their birth mothers for nearly their whole lives. Adriana went on Radio Globo's The Time is Now, a show that reunites long-lost relatives, this week, to finally meet her mom. 
   
   In their conversation, she learned her mother gave up another baby, her little brother, who just happened to have the same name as her husband. The host of the show, Ron Magrini, cut in to ask Leandro's last name, confirming the awful coincidence: Adriana had married her brother. 
   
   They first met 10 years ago, and now have a 6-year-old son together. 
   
   Adriana had suspected something like this after seeing their mother's name, Maria, on one of her husband's two birth certificates, but she thought the reunion would put those fears to rest, not confirm them. 
   
   "We thought it was funny that both our mothers had the same name, but it is a common name so we just thought it was a coincidence," she said. 
   
   Radio Globo reports the two never had their marriage notarized by the government or recognized by a church, so it's technically void under Brazilian law. Regardless, they say they love each other and plan to stay together. 
   
   [H/T Daily Mail, Photo: Radio Globo]
target: – A Brazilian woman got quite the surprise when she went on a radio show this week to reconnect with her long-lost mother, Gawker reports. Adriana, 39, who gave no last name, went on Radio Globo's The Time Is Now (which helps people find lost family members) and talked to her mother for the first time. The big news: Adriana had a brother who'd been given up as a child and raised by a relative, just like Adriana was. Bigger news: His name was Leandro, just like Adriana's husband. The two men, in fact, had the same last name. "I don’t believe that you’re telling me this," said a sobbing Adriana, the Daily Mail reports. "Leandro is my husband." The couple has a 6-year-old daughter. Adriana was given up at the age of one and raised by her father, according to the show. Her husband Leandro, 37, learned at age 8 that he'd also been abandoned at a young age, then raised by his step-mother. By the time Adriana and Leandro met, each had spent years seeking their birth mother—without knowing it was the same person. "Now I'm scared to go home and find out that Leandro doesn't want me anymore," she said. "I love him so much." But she later said that the pair, who were never legally married, will stay together "whatever anyone might think." Their romantic connection isn't that unusual, according to experts who estimate that up to 50% of such reunions include at least short-term attraction and sometimes sexual obsession, reports an old Guardian article. (Read about twins who reunited after 78 years—a new world record.)