An 18-year-old woman from the Great Lakes region told New York magazine she planned to marry her formerly estranged, biological father and move to New Jersey, where she said there is no legal prohibition against adult incest.

“We plan to move to New Jersey where we can be safe under the law, since adult incest isn’t illegal there, and once I’m there I’ll tell everyone,” the woman, whose name was not published, told the magazine for its “What’s It Like” column, which explores unusual and taboo topics.

No other source was mentioned in the story apart from the unnamed teen, who said the marriage wouldn't be legally registered. Incestuous marriages are void under New Jersey law, but the Garden State doesn't bar consenting adults who are related from having sex.

Former Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi told NJ Advance Media that so long as certain criteria were met, a sexual relationship between the two may be legal.

"So long as she's not mentally incapacitated, they're both over the age of 18, and there's no physical force or coercion, or he's not otherwise subject to specific parole stipulations," Bianchi said.

The woman told the magazine she’d had little contact with her father from the age of five through the age of 15, when he reached out to the woman’s mother and asked to reconnect with the woman. They eventually reunited and have been in a "romantic relationship of almost two years," according to the magazine.

The magazine doesn't expressly indicate when the relationship became sexual or the state in which the couple resides.

In New Jersey, a parent who has sex with their child under the age of 18 can be charged both with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, Bianchi said. Given the length of the alleged relationship, Bianchi said, "an inventive prosecutor" could argue that the woman may have been mentally incapacitated because she's been a victim of abuse.

"If I had a doctor that believed that, I'd argue, as a prosecutor, that she had been groomed, sexually abused and can't really make a competent decision," Bianchi said. "She may be mentally incapacitated because she's a victim of abuse."

"I don't want to condone, as a prosecutor, those fathers who have a predilection for having sex with their children, that they can start grooming (their children) illegally, and, say, 'you can't touch me now,' when they turn 18," he said. "It all depends on the quality of the facts."

The woman also told the magazine the two plan on having children together. Experts say the children of closely related people — including siblings and an ancestor and a descendant — often suffer from profound and normally rare genetic ailments.

