ABrazilian married couple, who have both searched for their mothers who abandoned them as children, have discovered the two women they were looking for was infact the same person while live on air, making them brother and sister. Adriana, 39, and her husband Leandro, 37, who did not want to share their surnames, have known each other for 10 years and now have a six year old daughter together.

Both Adriana and Leandro, who live in Sao Paulo, had been searching for their mother for a number of years. Leandro knew his mother was called Maria, and that she had abandoned him at the age of eight. He was brought up by his stepmother. Adriana knew her mother was also called Maria, and that she had been abandoned at the age of one. She was brought up by her father. The couple thought that their mothers, who they believed to be two different women, should the same name was a “coincidence,” as Maria is a common name in Brazil.

But Adriana’s refusal to give up the search for her mother led her to calling into to Brazilian radio station Globo Radio, and eventually managing to speak to her mother on The Time is Now programme, which specialises in finding lost relatives, the Mirror reports. At the end of Adriana’s conversation with Maria, her mother revealed she also had a son called Leandro, who did not know her. Adriana, shocked at the realisation that her husband was also her brother, said: “I don’t believe that you’re telling me this. Leandro is my husband.”

The phenomenon that Leandro and Adriana have experienced is called Genetic Sexual Attraction, and it occurs between “two adults who have been separated during the critical years of development and bonding and are reunited alter as adults,” according to a GSA website, which has now been turned into a GSA support-based forum.