A 23-year-old woman is claiming that she is the world’s youngest grandmother.

Rifca Stanescu gave birth when she was just 12 years old and two years ago her daughter Maria had a baby at the age of 11.

Despite urging her daughter not to follow in her footsteps and stay in school, Stanescu told The Sun that Maria left to get married when she was just 10 and gave birth to her first child the following year.

"I am happy to be a grandmother but wished more for Maria," Stanescu told the paper.

Stanescu also revealed that she eloped with jewellery salesman Ionel Stanescu when she was 11 and he was 13.

She fled with her boyfriend because she was worried her father would force her to marry someone else in the village of Investi in Romania.

Her mother, also named Maria, became a great grandmother at just 40 years old.

Last month, the woman who is set to become Britain’s youngest grandmother at age 29, said that her daughter becoming a teen mum was ‘her worst nightmare’.

Kelly John gave birth to her daughter, Tia, at age 14. Tia is now expecting her own child at the same age.

'My worst nightmare has always been that Tia would repeat my mistake and get pregnant young. [When I found out] I felt the colour drain from my face and all I could do was cry.' John told the News of the World.

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