Monica Mares and Caleb Peterson say they are in love with each other.
She is his mother. He is her son.
The state of New Mexico, where they live, calls their sexual relationship incest and has charged both with the crime.
They face separate jury trials over the next few weeks — Peterson on Aug. 25, Mares on Sept. 16. They’ve been banned by the courts from having any more contact with each other.
The two are unapologetic about their relationship and have been talking to the media to explain it.
They’ve been subject to scorn since their secret love became public in February. Mares says she’s been attacked outside her home and has received death threats. People call her “Incest.”
On Facebook, people have accused them of having a “disgusting” and “gross” relationship.
The prosecutor for the case says she has heard no sympathy for Mares and that people tend to see Peterson, 19, as a victim.
The two gave separate interviews to London’s Daily Mail, published this week, in which they declared they are “madly in love.”
Mares, 36, gave birth to Peterson when she was 16 and gave him up for adoption shortly after he was born.
She told the Daily Mail that they reconnected last year on Facebook. She hadn’t seen him since he was a baby until she picked him up at his adoptive father’s house in Texas and brought him to her home in Clovis.
She said she got “butterflies” in her stomach when they met.