Kanye West has been making headlines after admitting to having a relationship with his cousin. The rapper told fans he embarked on a sexual relationship with his male relative when they were both kids.
In his wild post, Kanye, 47 – who seems to be back with wife Bianca Censori despite their rumoured split – told how he ‘reenacted’ what he and an unnamed cousin saw in pornographic mags when they were children. He added that he regrets the acts, and said his cousin is now behind bars for murder.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, he shared hints of a new song and wrote: “This song is called COUSINS about my cousin that’s locked in jail for life for killing a pregnant lady a few years after I told him we wouldn’t “look at dirty magazines together” anymore.
“Perhaps in my self centered mess I felt it was my fault that I showed him those dirty magazines when he was 6 and then we acted out what we saw. My dad had playboy magazines but the magazines I found in the top of my moms closet were different My name is Ye and I sucked my cousins d**k till I was 14. Tweet sent.”
Sex between cousins is illegal in most of the US – with one bereaved mother who lost her cousin husband campaigning for its legalisation – while incest between closer family members is illegal in the entire domestic UK. Hours away, however, there’s a British Overseas Territory that may have flourished on incest alone.
The Pitcairn Islands are the only British territory in the Pacific Ocean, made up of four islands with only Pitcairn inhabited by humans. Those still living there today are mainly descendants of the mutiny of the HMS Bounty, which happened in April 1789. After 10 years in Pitcairn, despite there being just nine British men left alongside 11 Tahitian women, the population began to grow.
Together they had 24 children, who had 77 children. Marriage between first and second cousins was common and by 1856, the population had risen to 193.
The more adventurous islanders started moving away to Commonwealth countries Australia and New Zealand, leaving just a loyal few behind. By 2023, only 35 people permanently resided in Pitcairn – but their taste for incestuous or taboo relationships doesn’t seem to have stopped.
Life on the island is extremely closed-off from the rest of civilisation. The islanders rarely have phone signal, and the only way to leave is to hop on the supply ship – which comes just four times a year.
According to Pitcairn’s government website, most people on the island are Seventh Day Adventists after a religious mission was started in 1890, and they still keep the Sabbath. It also explains that you can get married on the island, and that same-sex marriage is legal there.
Local children get schooling until the age of 13, when some go off to boarding school in New Zealand. There’s also a post office and a general store, with one ‘television station’ and decent internet connection to stream things at home.
Pitcairn even has a clinic run by a doctor and nurse, which is open three mornings per week – but any major emergencies have to be addressed by boating over to a mainland.
Land is free and people able to build their own houses if they wish. There are no benefits given on the island so everyone has to be self-sufficient, and many newcomers start off by living with a host family.
While the idea of getting free land on a tropical island might sound idyllic, apparently only one person has committed to moving over for good – and there might be a chilling reason why.
In 2004, the Pitcairn Islands made headlines when seven men – a third of the male population – were arrested for sex crimes. Six of the men were found guilty, one of whom was the mayor. The following year, a further six men who’d moved away from the island were tried.
According to the men, they were simply keeping up the ‘traditions’ of the island, which saw most girls welcome their first child when they themselves were children; on average, between 12 to 15 years old. Pitcairn’s age of consent is just 12, with concerned visitor Tosen told “it doesn’t hurt them” when he tried to question the abuse, according to the Independent.
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