A married couple with three children discovered they were cousins after taking a DNA test to learn more about their family tree.
Celina Quinones, a realtor from Colorado, shared the news in a TikTok video that has been viewed over 4.4 million times since it was posted in March — and reaction to the video has so far been mixed.
“There’s a lot of negative comments, it’s horrible,” Celina tells PEOPLE. “People keep asking, ‘Why would you do that? Why would you post this?’ But I take everything with a grain of salt. I’m a realtor, so I’m used to getting badgered all the time, so I’m like, ah, it’s nothing.”
Just after a few months of dating, Celina married her husband, Joseph Quinones, in July 2006. Though their families met then, no one suspected they were related.
“We ended up having our wedding, and even then, our grandmas seemed to be a lot alike, and they got along, but still, nothing clicked,” she recalls.
Adds Joseph: “We didn’t think about it. I never saw her at family reunions, funerals, or weddings.”
But they made the discovery when Celina began piecing together a family tree and took a DNA test through MyHeritage about 10 years into their marriage.
“I ordered the DNA tests,” says Celina. “They came in, and sure enough, we did our swabs, put them in the mail, and off they went. Then we got the results back, and I searched the family tree DNA — another part of the search — and saw him pop up there. And I go, ‘Oh no.'”
After reading the results, Celina admits she began doubting whether she and Joseph should be together.
