A married man once explained why he left his wife to start a relationship with his biological mother.
Kim West had given birth to a son called Ben when she was just 19 and was studying in California, before placing him up for adoption around a week later and then returning to the UK.
But in 2013, Ben Ford decided to seek out his biological mother for the first time and they stayed in contact through phone calls and letters, before eventually agreeing to meet a year later.
However, what should have been an emotional meeting between mother and son suddenly turned sexual, with Ben admitting that the encounters were so 'mind-blowing' that he felt compelled to leave his wife Victoria of two years, as he could no longer be intimate with her unless he imagined she was her mother.
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Kim told The New Day newspaper back in 2016: "(Victoria) was welcoming, yet I couldn't warm to her. I felt a growing sense of competition and when Ben touched her I felt jealous.
"I became even more aware of the fact that she thought I was spending too much time with Ben. She would constantly call him when we were together.
"Eventually, he admitted she was giving him grief about spending time with me. 'She calls you mummy girlfriend' he said."
Incestuous relationships are illegal in the vast majority of countries and despite the threat of a potential 15 year sentence hanging over their heads, the two were planning to get married.
They even spoke about wanting to try for children, claiming that they would use surrogacy if they could not conceive naturally, despite the significantly higher risk of serious genetic health conditions that comes with inbreeding.
But they claimed that their situation isn't incest, and rather a 'Genetic Sexual Attraction', which supposedly occurs when relatives who meet for the first time as adults experience sexual attraction due to the intimacy they missed when they were younger.
"This is not incest, it is GSA. We are like peas in a pod and are meant to be together," Kim added.
"I know people will say we're disgusting, that we should be able to control our feelings, but when you're hit by a love so consuming you are willing to give up everything for it, you have to fight for it."
Ben admitted his infidelity to his wife just days after meeting his mother and soon moved in with her in Michigan, where local outrage ensued when their relationship first went public.
Although they could be prosecuted and registered as sex offenders under Michigan law, the peculiar pair insisted that they were meant to be together.
It's not known if Kim and Ben continue to be in a relationship, or if they were able to tie the knot and start a family.
At least Oedipus had the decency to exile himself after accidentally sleeping with his mother.
James Moorhouse