History Main / DoubleInLawMarriage

* Cousins Touka and Nayuta Satomi in ''VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' turn out to be related this way, although since the frayed brotherly relationship between their fathers is relevant to the plot while their mothers being sisters only comes up in one of Nayuta's homescreen quotes, it's easy to miss.

A popular way to resolve a SiblingTriangle. Compare BestFriendsInLaw, which only involves three people. Not to be confused with SettleForSibling, although overlap is certainly not impossible. Not at all the same as BrotherSisterIncest, where someone marries their ''own'' sibling.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E21LadyBouviersLover Lady Bouvier's Lover]]" has Homer's father courting Marge's mother. Homer realizes that if they end up getting married (as they very nearly do), he and Marge will be brother and sister. He freaks out, as [[InsaneTrollLogic Homer honestly believes this will make their children inbred (retroactively)]].

* A rabbinic legend says that ''Literature/TheBible'''s Laban intended to marry his two daughters to their [[KissingCousins two male cousins]]--the older two, Leah and Esau, would be one couple and Jacob and Rachel would be the other. {{Averted}} because Leah prayed to {{God}} that she wouldn't have to marry the wicked Esau, and He arranged for both sisters to marry Jacob instead.

* In Myth/ClassicalMythology there were the Danaids, fifty sisters, who were in a mass ArrangedMarriage to [[KissingCousins their fifty male cousins]]. They are eventually compelled to go through with the marriages, and then [[spoiler:all but one of the sisters murder their husbands in their sleep]].
* In Greek Myth/ClassicalMythology, brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon married half-twin-sisters (different fathers, [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal don't ask]]) Helen and Clytemnestra, respectively.
* For that matters, Helen and Clytemnestra's brothers, Castor and Pollux abducted and married Hilaeira and Phoebe, daughters of Leucippus who themselves were betrothed to another pair of brothers Lynceus and Idas. It didn't end well, Lynceus and Idas killed Castor to avenge their honor.

Alice and Bob are siblings. So are Charlie and Dana. Alice marries Charlie, while Bob falls in love with Dana. The gender configurations can vary -- it could be two sisters who each marry one of a pair of brothers, or any variation including QueerRomance. In other words, it's any time one pair of siblings marry another pair of siblings. Someone marries the sibling of their own sibling's spouse.

This can lead to a major TangledFamilyTree as the children of one couple are "double cousins" to the children of the other. Since they are as genetically twice as similar as most cousins, KissingCousins is even more discouraged in such cases. This gets ramped up in cases where identical twins are involved, in which case the cousins are biologically as close as half-siblings (with one set) or full siblings (with two sets). Can also overlap with RetroactiveStepsiblingRelationship.

* Almost happened with UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and his elder brother Joseph: Joseph married Julie Clary, the daughter of a wealthy silk merchant, in 1794 and Napoleon fell in love with and became engaged to Désirée, Julie's younger sister. However, Désirée's parents did not want another Bonaparte son-in-law; instead, Napoleon met and married the attractive and influential widow Joséphine de Beauharnais, leaving Désirée to marry General Bernadotte and eventually become Queen of Sweden.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': This is sometimes the origin for Peter Parker's Aunt May and Uncle Ben's relationship with his parents. Originally, Uncle Ben was just Richard Parker's considerably older brother and Aunt May and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker were unrelated, but some recent versions have the women as sisters as well.

** Two of Frederick William's sons, William (later Kaiser Wilhelm I) and Charles, also married sisters, with William marrying Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Charles marrying her older sister Marie.

* Edward, Duke of Kent, was the paternal uncle of Princess Charlotte of Wales. Charlotte was married to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his sister, Princess Victoria, married Duke Edward. Their only child later became UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria. This is a variant on the trope, however; Princess Charlotte died in 1817 at the age of 21, and Duke Edward didn't marry Princess Victoria until 1818. (Charlotte was an only child, and her death caused the threat of a SuccessionCrisis.)

This can lead to a major TangledFamilyTree as the children of one couple are "double cousins" to the children of the other. Since they are as genetically twice as similar as most cousins, KissingCousins is even more discouraged in such cases. This gets ramped up in cases where identical twins are involved, in which case the cousins are biologically as close as half-siblings (with one set) or full siblings (with two sets).

* England's UsefulNotes/RichardIII was married to Anne Neville, while his older brother George, Duke of Clarence was married to Anne's older sister, Isabel Neville, a situation that came about quite dramatically during the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses. Anne and Isabel's father, [[TheKingmaker Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick]], had helped Richard and George's oldest brother become [[UsefulNotes/EdwardIV King Edward IV]] only to become resentful over Edward's favoring of his wife's middle class family. Warwick was the foster father of both George and Richard and thus the boys grew up in the same social circle as Warwick's daughters but Edward forbid matches between them. Warwick, who desired the matches, eventually rebelled and George joined him, marrying Isabel without the King's permission. Richard, however, stayed loyal to Edward. Warwick eventually switched sides and married Anne to the Lancastrian heir to the throne, and George returned to the Yorkist side. When Warwick and the Lancastrian prince were killed, fourteen-year-old widow Anne was placed in the care of George and Isabel. The sisters' had a fortune which was supposed to be split between them, but George wanted the entirety of it for himself. Richard pursued Anne, and legend has it that George hid her in the kitchens as a servant to prevent them seeing one another. Richard eventually found her, and after a bitter negotiation, Richard and Anne married. Despite all the drama, and all four parties dying young, evidence suggests both couples were HappilyMarried.

* In Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/HomecomingSaga'', brothers Nafai and Issib marry sisters Luet and Hushidh.
* Lily and Daisy Calloway (sisters) married Loren Hale and Ryke Meadows (half-brothers) in ''{{Literature/Addicted|Series}}''.
* This ''would'' have happened in ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' if brother and sister Charles and Melanie Hamilton had married their cousins Honey and Ashley Wilkes, respectively, as had long been planned, in keeping with the family tradition of the Wilkes and Hamilton clans intermarrying. However, Scarlett O'Hara decided to interfere, and in a failed attempt at getting Ashley for herself or at least making him jealous, ''she'' ended up married to Charles.
* In the Ramsey/Brady collection of Harlequin Romance novels, four Brady sisters end up married to the four Ramsey brothers. For added bonus, the oldest sister marries the oldest brother, etc. With only four Ramsey brothers, poor fifth and youngest sister Colleen has to find an entirely different guy on her own.
* In the ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' Zhan and Zhanayt (Cayleb's younger siblings) end up marrying Nahrmahn and Mahrya (the children of Nahrmahn Sr). The betrothal of Zhan and Mahrya was an ArrangedMarriage (which became a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage) to tie Emerald into the Charisian Empire while the marriage of Nahrmahn and Zhanayt was a case of them falling in love.
* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': The Ehrenfest and Frenbeltag archducal couples are in such a marriage. Ehrenfest's archduke's wife is the younger sister of Frenbeltag's archduke, whose wife is the older sister of Ehrenfest's archduke. Ehrenfest being led by the younger siblings all while having been less damaged than Frenbeltag by a recent civil war results in its leaders having trouble saying "no" to requests for help from Frenbeltag.
* In the ''Double Trouble'' and ''Triple Trouble'' series by Michael J. Pellowski, this is the explanation given for why the Daniels twins have an identical cousin. Their father's older brother married their mother's younger sister.

* ''Series/QueenForSevenDays'' has an especially bizarre example since the wives are actually aunt and niece, but are close enough in age to be sisters. Lee Yung marries Shin Bi, and later his half-brother Lee Yeok marries Shin Bi's niece Chae-gyeong.

* In ''Series/LostInAusten'', after Mr. Collins marries Jane, he tries to marry his brothers off to the younger Bennet sisters. It doesn't quite work out.
* ''Series/IntoTheWest'' used this in the first episode.
* ''Howe & Howe Tech'' is about a company run by identical twin brothers Mike and Geoff, with their wives, Tammy and Tracy, handling office work. Tammy and Tracy are sisters.
* Played with on ''Series/LosHombresDePaco''. Paco and Pepa are brother and sister and Silvia and Lola are sisters. Paco and Lola were married but got divorced before [[LesYay Pepa and Silvia]] got married later on in the series.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' had one episode where the Inn hosted a double wedding between two sets of twins.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': In "How to Marry a Moron", Kelly is engaged to a rich guy named Lonnie Tot and Lonnie's ugly sister is interested in Bud. When Lonnie's dad says he'll make Al his business partner if both marriages take place, Al eagerly announces Bud's engagement.

* ''Series/LivAndMaddie'': Artie wishes for this, with him dating Liv and his brother Diggie dating Liv's twin sister Maddie. Unfortunately, Maddie and Diggie break up and Liv has no interest in Artie and considers him an AbhorrentAdmirer.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' when Stephen finds out that, due to copyright, he is unable to use his character from ''Series/TheColbertReport''. To get around this, he introduces the character's identical twin cousin (their parents were two sets of identical twins and they were conceived at the same time).

* ''Series/PasionDeGavilanes'': The popular telenovela features a ''triple''-in-law situation, as the plot concerns the entanglements between the Reyes and Elizondo families. Over the course of the series, the three Reyes brothers fall for a different Elizondo sister.

* In [[http://trialofthesun.com/ Trial of the Sun]], Rennin and Caliosis end up marrying each other's sisters: Rennin set up his good friend with his sister out of gratitude, and much later married Cal's sister Filumena when Filumena's marriage prospects had otherwise weakened.

* Not marriage, but in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse,'' Lincoln winds up in a SecretRelationship with Ronnie Anne, whose older brother Bobby is dating his oldest sister Lori.

* In ''Manga/WildRock'', Yuuen's brother and Emba's sister meet during their ceremony, which leads to the BabiesEverAfter chapters.
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''[='=]s finale, it's shown that the twins Fuka and Fumika ended up marrying twin princes from the magic world.

* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: Creator/DonRosa once stated in an interview that he sees Mr. Duck ([[RhymeThemeNaming Huey, Dewey and Louie]]'s father) as Daisy's brother, and that Daisy is really the boys' aunt. Their mother, Della Duck, is Donald's sister. Donald and Daisy are, of course, dating. The canonicity of this statement is dubious, however.
* This is sometimes the origin for [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]]'s Aunt May and Uncle Ben's relationship with his parents. Originally, Uncle Ben was just Richard Parker's considerably older brother and Aunt May and Mary Fitzpatrick-Parker were unrelated, but some recent versions have the women as sisters as well.
** This is specifically hinted at in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', where Aunt May refers to her sister's death and calls Peter her sister's responsibility during a fight.
** In the regular continuity, however, it's often noted that this is not the case, and Aunt May (Reilly, not Fitzpatrick) and Peter Parker are not related by blood at all, making her selfless love and doting nature all the sweeter.

* In Creator/TheBrothersGrimm tale "Literature/SnowWhiteAndRoseRed," Snow White winds up with the prince who was [[spoiler: turned into a bear]] while Rose Red marries his brother. Since the girls grew up sharing everything, this is the closest they can come to sharing a husband, too. In the ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' adaptation, there's a bit of AdaptationExpansion: the brother appears earlier in the story, Rose Red [[RescueRomance helps him when he's wounded]] and there's quite a bit of ShipTease [[BetaCouple between the two]].
* In Creator/JosephJacobs's ''Literature/KateCrackernuts'', Kate, having rescued the sick prince, finds that her stepsister Anne and the prince's brother had fallen in love at first sight.
* In Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe's ''Literature/TheGiantWhoHadNoHeartInHisBody'', there's a ''six-fold'' in-law marriage: six brothers marry six sisters, with only the youngest brother marrying a different bride.

* In Creator/MadameDAulnoy's "Literature/PrincessBelleEtoile" [[https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=36&tale=893 link]], a king and his brother marry two sisters. Unfortunately, there is a third sister, and the king and his brother don't have a third brother for her. She marries an admiral instead and becomes jealous. (Their children, three of the king's and one of the brother's, are then abandoned together, and despite being raised as brothers and sister, [[KissingCousins the king's daughter and the brother's son manage to fall in love and end up married]].)

* In the Arab fairy tale, "The Father of Seven Sons", the father takes it into his head that his sons must marry seven sisters. He does find such brides for them.
** Other Arab fairy tales reflect the tradition of KissingCousins; a woman falls in love with a man and that's a problem because she's betrothed to her first cousin. If he's willing to give her up, this is often amicably resolved by the new bridegroom offering the cousin a bride who is his cousin.

* In a [[Literature/TheLionKingSixNewAdventures series of books]] about ''Franchise/TheLionKing'', Simba and Nala have a son, Kopa, thus making him Kiara's brother. Guess who Kovu's sister, Vitani, is almost always paired up with.
* In ''Webcomic/HowIBecameYours'', Zuko gets together with Katara and Azula with Sokka.

* Many ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fans/fanfics that ship Sam and Gabriel also ship Dean and Castiel.
* The ''Fanfic/MegsFamilySeries'' features a BetaCouple in [[TheDitz Chris]] and [[DumbBlonde Jillian]], who are the siblings of OfficialCouple [[ButtMonkey Meg]] and [[OriginalCharacter Zack]] respectively (Half-siblings in Zack and Jillian's case).

* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin''. Naruto is dating Hinata while his cousin Karin ends up with Hinata's cousin Neji. The possibility of a natural attraction between the two clans is briefly suggested after the latter couple hooks up.
* The ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' fandom has the [[ShipMates double ship]] of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Remilia]]/[[MindOverManners Satori]] and [[CreepyChild Flandre]]/[[DissonantSerenity Koishi]]. Note that until the 2019 manga ''Webcomic/TouhouChireikidenFoulDetectiveSatori'', [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight the Scarlets and the Komeijis had never actually interacted in canon]].

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/{{Tumbleweed}}'', Sarah Blandon is very keen for her sister Laura to marry her husband's brother Lam. Laura is notably less keen on the idea.

* Creator/JaneAusten loves this trope:
** ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'': John and Isabella Thorpe plan to marry Catherine and James Moreland, respectively, but ultimately don't because John is a pompous windbag and Isabella is an incurable flirt.
** ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'': John Dashwood and his half-sister Elinor Dashwood marry sister and brother Fanny and Edward Ferrars. John and Fanny are already married before the book begins, but Elinor and Edward don't get married until the end (Edward's ArrangedMarriage and ChildhoodMarriagePromise to Lucy were in the way).
** ''Literature/MansfieldPark'': Mrs. Grant plans for her brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford to marry siblings Julia and Tom Bertram. They both blow it, starting by flirting with the other two Bertrams Maria and Edmund. Note to [[ShipperOnDeck Shippers On Deck]]: Make sure the sides are balanced before attempting this trope. Ironically, at least 2 {{Fan Sequel}}s -- ''Susan Price'' and ''Mansfield Revisited'' -- invoke this trope by marrying Fanny's sister Susan Price to Edmund's brother Tom Bertram.
** ''Literature/{{Emma}}'': Brothers John and George Knightley marry sisters Isabella and Emma Woodhouse. As in ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', the heroine's marriage takes place at the end, while her sibling's marriage took place before the start of the book, so Emma and her Mr. Knightley have been LikeBrotherAndSister all her life.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** At the very beginning, best friends King Robert and Ned Stark intend to do this. They had already betrothed Sansa and Joffrey, while Robb and Arya escorted Myrcella and Tommen to dinner, with the implication that they were trying to set them up.
** Catelyn Stark makes a contract with Walder Frey for Robb and Arya to marry two Frey siblings.
** According to ''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'', siblings Daeron II and Daenerys Targaryen (Queen Daenerys' namesake) were wedded to a pair of siblings from House Martell: Myriah and Maron, respectively.
** Jacaerys and Lucerys Velaryon, sons of Rhaenyra Targaryen, were betrothed to Baela and Rhaena Targaryen, daughters of Rhaenyra's second husband, Daemon. However, both boys died during the Dance of the Dragons, and Baela and Rhaena ended up marrying different people after the war.
* A minor side-plot in Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' concerns a pair of criminal twin brothers who fell for a pair of twin sister hookers, and got sent to prison for murdering their pimp. They wind up getting out again after a little unofficial deal is struck with the police, killing a pair of Cartel Goons who were set to get off on a technicality, inside the prison. As far as we know, the two sets of twins all lived {{happily ever after}} while the main plot moved on.

* In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries The Bacta War]]'', we learn that Lanal Darklighter is Gavin's aunt on both sides of the family because she is both his mother's sister and his paternal uncle's wife.
* There exists somewhere an "ending" written for the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' that was made several hundred years later, in which Shahryar had magically fallen deeply in love with Scheherazade, decided to keep her, and then his brother magically fell in love with her sister so they could be one big happy family.
* Mentioned in an aside in ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'', although not actually featured. Atticus mentions the concept of double cousins, saying "two brothers married two sisters." The pair of young friends Scout and Dill work on figuring it out, and reason that if [[BrotherSisterIncest Dill had a sister whom he married]], and [[BrotherSisterIncest Scout and her brother got married]], their kids would be double cousins. Only off by a little bit there...
* Used in ''Literature/AdaOrArdor'' to set up the incestuous cousins, although they later turn out to be siblings as both were the product of an affair between the double in-laws.

* This shows up several times in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
** [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sam's]] sister Marigold Gamgee married Rose's brother Tolman Cotton.
** [[Literature/TheSilmarillion Galdor]], heir to the house of Hador, and his sister Gloredhel marry Hareth of the Haladin and her brother Haldir.
** Galdor and Hareth's sons Húrin and Huor marry first cousins Morwen and Rían.
** Siblings Éomer and Éowyn of Rohan marry first cousins Lothíriel of Dol Amroth and Faramir of Gondor.
** [[Literature/TheHobbit Bilbo]]'s father (Bungo Baggins) and his first cousin Rosa married siblings Belladonna and Hildigrim Took. (Bilbo's and Frodo's fathers were first cousins once removed, and their mothers were aunt and niece--look through the family trees at the end of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and you can find endless cases of people marrying their in-laws as well as KissingCousins.)

* In ''Literature/OnceUponAMarigold'', two of Princess Marigold's older sisters are married to the twin princes of Zandelphia. [[spoiler:This becomes triple in the end when Marigold marries Christian, revealed to be the twins' long-lost brother and thus the true heir to throne of Zandelphia.]]
* In Jacqueline Wilson's ''Double Act'', Garnet has always assumed she and her twin sister Ruby would marry a pair of twin boys.
* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' has this trope seen as very positive since it means closer bonds between families and makes cousins more like sisters. When Cullen is married to the older Whistler sisters, he hopes to get their cousin married to ''his'' sisters.
* In Creator/AletheaKontis's ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'', a pair of sisters marry, not a pair of brothers, but a father and son, so they are stepmother-in-law and stepdaughter-in-law.
* Book 4 of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': Brother and sister Campbell and Canacee married sister and brother Cambina and Triamond.
* [[Literature/WhatKatyDid In the High Valley]] by Susan Coolidge: Lionel and Imogen Young marry Joanna and Dorry Carr. Lionel describes it as 'change partners all round and down the middle'
* First ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' Virgil Samms and his cousin George Olmstead are (allegedly) remarkably similar in appearance because of a two-generation stack of this phenomenon. Supposedly, "quadruple first cousins" is the closest the genealogists could come to computing what had actually happened. (Notably, their parents were not only a pair of brothers and a pair of sisters ... they're a pair of ''identical twin'' brothers and a similar pair of sisters who ALSO happen to be first cousins with each other.)

* Although it's only part of the act that they keep up to appear human, the Cullen/Hale "kids" ''appear'' as this to outsiders in the novel ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. Alice Cullen is with Jasper Hale while her "brother" Emmett Cullen is with Jasper's "sister" Rosalie Hale. It's implied that the family puts on some variety of this trope whenever they all move to a new location together and that Bella and Edward will be folded into the deception now that they're together and both vampires.

* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: Creator/DonRosa's Duck Family Tree sketch reveals that Mr. Duck ([[RhymeThemeNaming Huey, Dewey and Louie]]'s father) is Daisy's brother, while their mother, Della Duck, is Donald's sister. Donald and Daisy are, of course, dating.

* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' has this trope seen as very positive since it means closer bonds between families and makes cousins more like sisters. When Cullen is married to the older Whistler sisters, he hopes to get their cousins married to ''his'' sisters.

* Abdullah I of Jordan (great-grandfather of current King Abdullah II) married Musbah mint Nasser, while his younger brother Faisal I of Iraq married Musbah's twin sister, Huzaima. For bonus points, Abdullah and Faisal were first cousins of Musbah and Huzaima.

* In Creator/TheBrothersGrimm tale "Literature/SnowWhiteAndRoseRed," Snow White winds up with the prince who was [[spoiler: turned into a bear]] while Rose Red marries his brother. Since the girls grew up sharing everything, this is the closest they can come to sharing a husband, too. In the ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' adaptation, there's a bit of AdaptationExpansion: the brother appears earlier in the story, Rose Red [[RescueRomance helps him when he's wounded]] and there's quite a bit of ShipTease [[BetaCouple the two]].

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': The Ehrenfest and Frenbeltag archducal couples are in such a marriage. Ehrenfest's archduke's wife is the younger sister of Frenbeltag's archduke, whose wife is the older sister of Ehrenfest's archduke. Ehrenfest being led by the younger siblings all while having been less damaged than Frenbeltag by a recent civil war results in its leaders having trouble saying "no" to requests for help from Frenbeltag.