History Main / AFamilyAffair

* ''Literature/BookOfExodus'':
** Several paragraphs are dedicated to admonishing the Israelites not to have sex with family members, including stepparents/stepsiblings/in-laws/etc. Doing so was punishable by the parties involved being [[KillItWithFire burned alive]].
** Later, in one of the prophetic books, after Israel has turned ([[YoYoPlotPoint yet again]]) to [[WretchedHive idolatry and all-around depravity]], the writer laments that a father and son visit the same temple prostitute, or "use the same girl." (Maybe at different times, maybe at the same time; the text doesn't say.) The writer considers this to be a form of incest.

* ''Film/HellraiserJudgement'': Sean's brother David, who is also his colleague and partner in the police department, is having an affair with Sean's wife Alison. Sean tries to use this sin to offer them as a sacrifice to Pinhead in exchange for his own soul.

** Later, in ''[[Literature/TheFourGospels]]'', John the Baptist calls out a ruler named Herod who is sleeping with his sister-in-law. (He also feels attraction to her daughter, who dances for him at a party.) She ends up having John killed for interfering. (When Herod tells her he'll give her anything she asks for as an award, her mother tells her to ask for John's head on a platter. Herod can't go back on his word, even though he actually kind of liked John apart from the whole "calling him out for having an inappropriate relationship" thing, so he complies.)

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'':

[[YourCheatingHeart Adultery]] is considered to be a betrayal on the cheater's behalf, and a major source of drama because of it. And as family is supposed to look out for one another, when the person they cheat with is a relative of the cheated partner it's all the more of a betrayal, and thus all the more dramatic. Usually it's the wife sleeping with her brother-in-law, or brother sleeping with his sister in-law, though sometimes it's the parent or child. Doing so means they're almost universally considered a {{Jerkass}} for betraying their own loved one's trust, and the affair is usually on the bad end of GoodAdulteryBadAdultery. Of course, it's possible for it to be sympathetic if the relative is far nicer than the spouse being cheated on, or the cheaters wanted to be partners in the first place but had to settle for the other relative. Maybe it's just a sign of a DysfunctionalFamily.

* ''Film/HellraiserJudgement'': Sean's brother David, who is also his colleague and partner in the police department, is having an affair with Sean's wife Alison. He tries to use this sin to offer them as a sacrifice to Pinhead in exchange for his own soul.

* ''Fanfic/{{Restraint}}'': While [[spoiler:Azula]] was away for two years, [[spoiler:Ty Lee]] cheated on her with her married brother [[spoiler:Zuko]]. This ended up leading to a pregnancy and their DysfunctionalFamily became even more dysfunctional.

* In ''Film/Bumblebee'', Roy, the corrupt hick who explodes into goop by Decepticons Shatter & Dropkick when they first arrive, apparently attempted (and failed) to cheat on his wife with her sister, and cares more about his car than he does the lives of anyone around him.

* ''Film/KenPark'': The teenager Shawn is sleeping with his girlfriend's mother behind her back and fantasizes about having a threeway with them. Sadly, his situation is probably the ''least'' psychologically messed up of all the four main characters, whose lives are rife with abuse and dysfunction.

** After her [[BrotherSisterIncest brother/lover]] Jaime (who she was sleeping with during her marriage to King Robert) is captured by the Starks, Cersei consoles herself by sleeping with their cousin Lancel, who is apparently closely-enough related that he resembles Jaime.
** "Black" Walder Frey is rumored to have slept with his brothers and cousins' wives [[KissingCousins along with his female cousins]], and thought to have slept with his great-grandfather Walder Frey's young seventh wife Annara Fanning. This puts the paternity of the younger Freys into question, and making House Frey even more of a BigScrewedUpFamily than it already is.

* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'': [[CainAndAbel After poisoning his brother]] King Claudius is quick to [[ComfortingTheWidow comfort the widow]] and marry Queen Gertrude. It's implied in some adaptations that the two were carrying on an affair while the king was still alive.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': The Queen of Midland was the king's second wife, and feeling neglected for him ended up carrying an affair with his brother Count Julius. While the relationship was purely physical, [[spoiler:after his death]] she came to realize she did truly love him.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* The Creator/{{HBO}} movie ''Above Suspicion'', starring Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/KimCattrall as husband and wife Dempsey and Gail, in which Gail is having an affair with Dempsey's brother Nick. Dempsey ends up killing them both and successfully spinning it as self-defence.

* In ''Literature/TheFolkOfTheAir'', the heroine Jude Duarte starts a relationship with Locke. She later discovers that he is in a secret relationship with her sister Taryn who he even later marries.

* This happens a lot in ''Series/AllMyChildren''

* ''Music/{{Voltaire}}'': In "Stuck With You" a husband and wife are both complaining about the other, with increasingly escalating problems. One verse shows that the couple had cheated on each other, starting with the husband:

** One of the origins of Zagreus and Melinoe is that Zeus slept with his brother Hades's wife Persephone [[BedTrick by disguising himself as Hades]]. [[IncestIsRelative Persephone also]] [[ParentalIncest happened to be his daughter]].
** [[WarGod Ares's]] favorite consort is Aphrodite, who was married to Hepheastus, blacksmith god and his full brother. While Aphrodite cheated on her UnwantedSpouse [[ReallyGetsAround with a lot of other people]], Ares was the one most well known for it.

* ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'': Velma, like all the other "Merry Murderesses" of the Cook County Jail,is a murderer; she killed her own husband and twin sister; in "Cell Block Tango", her motives were explained to have been blind fury at finding her husband and sister having sex after she left for just a few minutes.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead Season 3'', Javier has the option of reciprocating the feelings of his sister-in-law, Kate, whose husband and Javier's brother, David, is presumed dead. Even before the outbreak, Kate and David's relationship was already strained due to him being unpleasant. He's even confided to Javi that he's realized he hates being a familyman to the point that he wants to leave and entrust his wife and family to Javi. [[spoiler:When it turns out David is alive, it complicates things. He'll be upset when he thinks Javi and Kate are together and accuses Javi of stealing his family (regardless of whether or not Javi has been accepting Kate's advances — Kate deliberately pushes David's BerserkButton at one point by suddenly kissing Javi). In the ending, Kate won't feel bad if David was killed and urges Javi to do the same, though if Gabe was also killed, she'll ask for some space, but will otherwise want to pursue their relationship.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Spiderman}}'': ComicBook/NormanOsborn had an affair with his son's fiancee Lily Hollister. [[AbusiveParents This isn't even the worst thing he's done to Harry]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The Creator/{{HBO}} movie, ''Above Suspicion'', starring Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/KimCattrall as husband and wife Dempsey and Gail, in which Gail is having an affair with Dempsey's brother Nick. Dempsey ends up killing them both and successfully spinning it as self-defense.

* ''Film/HellraiserJudgement'': Sean's brother David, who is also his colleague and partner in the police department, is having an affair with Sean's wife Alison. He tries to use this sin to offer them as a sacrifice to Pinhead in exchange for his own soul.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge Stewart from "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice upon a Time]]" was intended by Creator/StevenMoffat to be the Brigadier's grandfather, however according to Henry Lincoln and the Haisman estate (who own the character and publish the spin-off Lethbridge-Stewart series), he was supposed to be his great-uncle, and Alistar Lethbridge Stewart was the grandfather. A compromise was made with a short story that revealed in a moment of loneliness while Alistar was off on a mission Archibald and Alistar's wife Lillian had a secret tryst, strongly implying that he was the Brigadier's ''biological'' grandfather, and Alistar his legal grandfather.

[[folder:Theater]]

* Several paragraphs are dedicated in the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'' to admonishing the Israelites not to have sex with family members, including stepparents/stepsiblings/in-laws/etc. Doing so was punishable by the parties involved being [[KillItWithFire burned alive]].

* ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'': Velma, like all the other "Merry Murderesses" of the Cook County Jail, killed her own husband and twin sister; in "Cell Block Tango", her motives were explained to have been blind fury at finding her husband and sister having sex after she left for just a few minutes.

The moral of the story: [[AllMenArePerverts Always keep your condoms in the car]].

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Live Action Series]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge Stewart from ''Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime'' was intended by Creator/StevenMoffat to be the Brigadier's grandfather, however according to Henry Lincoln and the Haisman estate (who own the character and publish the spin-off Lethbridge-Stewart series), he was supposed to be his great-uncle, and Alistar Lethbridge Stewart was the grandfather. A compromise was made with a short story that revealed in a moment of loneliness while Alistar was off on a mission Archibald and Alistar's wife Lillian had a secret tryst, strongly implying that he was the Brigadier's ''biological'' grandfather, and Alistar his legal grandfather.

--> '''Wife''': ''You promised you'd be true to me,
--> But gave me infidelity!''
--> '''Husband''': ''Why should I give a tinker's cuss?
--> She was your sister, what's the fuss?''

[[folder:Mythology And Religion]]

** One of the origins of Zagreus and Melinoe is that Zeus slept with his brother Hades' wife Persephone [[BedTrick by disguising himself as Hades]]. [[IncestIsRelative Persephone also]] [[ParentalIncest happened to be his daughter]].
** [[WarGod Ares']] favorite consort is Aphrodite, who was married to Hepheastus, blacksmith god and his full brother. While Aphrodite cheated on her UnwantedSpouse [[ReallyGetsAround with a lot of other people]], Ares was the one most well known for it.

[[folder:Theatre]]

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': Similarly to Kanon, [[spoiler:Akio ends up sleeping with his fiancee Kanae's mother]]. He's a lot more of a ManipulativeBastard about it, though.