Couple vow to stay married and meet up with their mother together

Maria reveals she also had a son called Leandro, Adriana breaks down

Adriana found her mother through TV show, they were reunited on air

A woman went in search of her long-lost mother - and discovered she has unknowingly married her own brother.

Adriana, 39, and her husband Leandro, 37, have been together for seven years and have a six-year-old daughter.

The Brazilian couple - who didn't want to reveal their surnames - spent their lives trying to find their respective mothers, who were both called Maria, and had both abandoned their children when they were still babies.

Related: Married couple Leandro and Adriana discovered they are brother and sister - but vow to stay together

But neither ever imagined - until this week - that the women they had both been searching for could have been the same person.

Adriana, a cosmetics saleswoman, hadn't seen her mother since she was just one, when she left home leaving her to be raised by the girl's father.

Meanwhile, truck driver Leandro found out aged eight that his own mother had also abandoned him, and that the woman he knew as his mum was actually his step-mother.

While Leandro stayed in the same town where he was born in the state of Sao Paulo, southeast Brazil, Adriana moved away to work as a housemaid, was married for 15 years and had three children.

The pair met for the first time ten years ago after Adriana's marriage broke down and she moved back to her home town, and they soon fell in love and moved in together.

Discovery: They were both abandoned as infants and spent their lives searching for their mothers called Maria

Still unable to forget the give up the search for her mother, last month Adriana decided to contact a a radio station in their town to ask for help - and this week the two were reunited live on air.

But at the end of the interview on Radio Globo's 'The Time Is Now' programme, which specialises in finding lost relatives, the mother revealed she also had a son who didn't know her, Leandro.

GENETIC SEXUAL ATTRACTION: HOW ESTRANGED RELATIVES CAN MISTAKE KINSHIP FOR ROMANCE

A phenomenon called genetic sexual attraction can occur when estranged relatives meet for the first time as adults .

Feelings of intense intimacy can be confused as the brain struggles to associate each other as family .

When families grow up together, an inherent taboo is created which desensitises them to sexual attraction .

It is known as the Westermarck effect but is missing from relatives who do not know each other .

As it becomes clear that it is the same Leandro that she was married to, Adriana is heard weeping uncontrollably: 'I don't believe that you're telling me this. Leandro is my husband,' she sobs.

At the end of the interview she says: 'Now I'm scared to go home and find out that Leandro doesn't want me any more. I love him so much.'

Adriana and Leandro - who never married legally - yesterday told Radio Globo that they would stay together, despite the bombshell that they are actually brother and sister.

Adriana said: 'Only death is going to separate us. All this happened because God wanted it to happen.

'Of course it would have been different if we had known all this before, but we didn't and we fell in love.

'We thought it was funny that both our mothers had the same name, but it is a common name so we just thought it was a coincidence.

'At first we were really knocked by it all. But we had a family meeting and told everyone that we are going to stay husband and wife, whatever anyone might think.

'We have so many plans together, nothing's going to break us up, nothing.'