Ana and Daniel Parra, a couple from Spain, continue to spark controversy over the fact that, in addition to being romantic partners and parents of two children, they are also half-siblings.
The couple, who have been together for 12 years, are currently documenting their road trip across Spain in a campervan.
Whenever they post a video, they receive a mix of supportive comments and outrage over their decision to be together.
Highlights
- A Spanish woman has defended her romantic relationship with her half-brother, with whom she shares two children.
- The couple, who first met when she was 20 and he was 17, initially felt “guilty” about their “taboo” romance.
- Ana and Daniel share the same father, who was absent from Ana’s life.
A couple’s love story has stunned the internet for one controversial reason
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
The two first crossed paths when Daniel was 17 and Ana was 20.
Ever since her father abandoned her as a little girl, Ana knew she had a half-brother she had never met.
“My mother told me that my father had left us to start another family and that he had a son,” Ana told El Español.
The woman suspected that her long-lost brother, whose name she didn’t know, lived in Granollers, Barcelona, her hometown.
“I was always curious to meet him,” Ana admitted. When she turned 20, she decided to connect with this part of her family history and used Facebook to search for her brother.
First, she found her father's profile, and from there, the name Daniel Parra, her father's son, appeared.
Ana and Daniel’s unusual romance began with a search for a missing piece of their family history
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
Daniel, whose parents separated when he was eight, was living with his father at the time.
"I'd been told before that I might have a sister out there, but my father never told me; it was something he wanted to hide,” he told the outlet.
Ana and Daniel felt an instant connection and began exchanging frequent messages on social media.
"We discovered we were so close that it was almost a miracle we hadn't met,” Ana explained.
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
The first time they saw each other in person, they hugged and started laughing.
"It was a little awkward since we didn't really know what to say,” Daniel recalled of meeting his older half-sister, who is now his partner.
"We tried to maintain a sibling relationship, but it was difficult.”
Ana and Daniel, who share the same father, explained that they never experienced a “fraternal feeling” toward each other
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
Eventually, the siblings began spending more and more time together. They met each other’s friends, attended concerts, and started living together after Ana moved into her own apartment.
Daniel said the two never shared a “fraternal feeling” toward each other, adding that, since he met Ana when he was 17, he “couldn’t really” call her a sister.
He encouraged Ana to meet their father for the first time, as he had been absent from her life.
"My father kept saying he wanted to meet me," Ana told El Español. "I didn't need a father anymore, but I met him anyway to give him a chance and to take a weight off Dani's shoulders. The truth is, that man has never shown me anything.”
Ana and Daniel spontaneously shared their first kiss while dancing together at a party. They were immediately overcome with guilt and pulled apart.
Their first kiss on the dance floor left them “suffering terribly,” Daniel recalled
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Recalling the moment, Ana said the two were “angry with ourselves” and didn't want to acknowledge their feelings, which were “taboo.”
After their first kiss, the couple stopped talking for three days.
"We liked each other, we were good together, but we're siblings, we couldn't do anything..." she said of the feelings she experienced during the time they spent apart.
Daniel shared, “Imagine liking a girl and, for moral reasons, being forbidden from being with her... well, you suffer terribly."
Eventually, the Parra half-siblings decided to challenge the taboo and begin a romantic relationship, which they said was “normalized” by their friends.
“We had a mental barrier imposed by society, but the reality is that we're two young people who met one day and fell in love,” Ana described.
Daniel described the moral norms that condemned their relationship as “silly,” insisting that their love was like “any other”
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Daniel said he and the content creator were separated by the moral norms that govern society, which he described as “silly.”
He said, “If you think about it, our relationship is like any other, except for a family record book that says we're blood siblings.”
Once they had normalized their relationship, the Parras went on a television program to announce it to the world. Ana said this was a practical decision to avoid having to tell people in Barcelona about their love story one by one.
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
Years later, the couple continues to face criticism for their relationship online. In a TikTok video, Ana addressed the comments telling her that her and Daniel’s children would be “deformed” due to their blood relation.
She explained that they consulted a geneticist before welcoming their two children and were told there was no cause for concern, as they did not share genetic mutations that could increase the risk of their children being born with certain health conditions.
“I’m less likely to have ill children with Dani than with any random man I may meet,” Ana stated before addressing her critics. “It is not concern that you’re expressing. It is ignorance, prejudice, and a little bit of obsession.”
The couple, who share two children, cannot get married in Spain
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Replying to a comment that read “Let’s see what God thinks about this relationship,” Ana said, “God is a chill guy; he sends us his son, who turns water into wine. The bad thing is his followers, who spend their time criticizing and wishing bad things on others.”
The couple, who insist they are not “advocating” for romantic relationships between siblings but are “simply sharing what happened to us," cannot get legally married in Spain because the country’s Civil Code prohibits marriage between direct relatives.
Image credits: anaparra_bcn
To be able to marry in Spain, Ana would have to reject her father, renounce him, and be adopted, "but since she's of legal age, it's very complicated," Daniel said.
They have reportedly spoken with lawyers in Sweden about getting married in the country, which allows such unions. However, they have rejected the idea because it is “very time-consuming and expensive.”
Ana compared her and Daniel’s case to those of other groups who have been historically marginalized.
"Societies must move forward and not be stuck in traditionalism,” she said. “Homosexuals weren't allowed to marry either, and now they can. We love each other, and that's what should prevail. We aren't hurting anyone.”
