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"I'm a teenager who has fallen in love with my mother."

 

A teenage boy has admitted to falling in love with his birth mother after spending 14 years apart.

Shane Burke, 19, tracked mum Rose Bestall, 35, using Facebook and organised a physical reunion soon after.

It took only a few weeks before Burke, from Manchester in England, realised his feelings had changed and he confessed them to Bestall, who was living in nearby Surrey.

“The confession left me with a massive dilemma,” she told Sunday People.

“I knew Shane’s feelings were completely inappropriate but I had searched for him for so long and I didn’t want to push him away again.”

The 19-year-old said the minimal age difference became a factor in his attraction.

“She is only 15 years older and I started to think of her in a romantic way,” he said.

“It was a very confusing time but I’m so lucky she was understanding.”

Burke believes he suffers from the psychological condition called genetic sexual attraction – a condition that occurs when a person becomes attracted to a biological relative they meet in adulthood.

“I now ­understand I was overcome by feelings of love for Rose,” he said.

Watch to learn more about genetic sexual attraction. Post continues after video.

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Video via HLN

Bestall was only 15 when she gave birth to Burke and had him taken into care.

“Social services said I was too young to care for baby. I was ­distraught,” she said.

Burke was fostered out with Bestall still being allowed supervised visits until he was adopted.

Bestall now lives with her 33-year-old husband Darryl and their four younger children.

The 35-year-old said she refused the possibility of their relationship developing into something else.

“I told him I loved him ­unconditionally as his mum but our relationship could never be anything else,” she said.

“Thankfully he understood and we’re working on a normal relationship.”

The two were said to have bonded over a love of karaoke and often found themselves singing together in pubs.

 

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