Top 10 Most Unusual Relationships

[WARNING: this list contains adult-oriented images] Over the centuries, numerous unconventional romances and partnerships have emerged. While some might appear ordinary in modern times, they often sparked significant controversy in their era. Here’s a compilation of the top 10 most peculiar relationships.

10. Allen and Previn

In 1978, Soon-Yi Previn, aged eight, was adopted by Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn during a trip to Korea. By 1980, when Soon-Yi was 10, Farrow started a 12-year relationship with Woody Allen. In 1992, Farrow discovered explicit photos of Soon-Yi in Allen’s home, revealing their romantic involvement (she was 22, and Allen was 56). Allen ended his relationship with Farrow and married Soon-Yi in 1997. His biological children cut ties with him, while Allen and Previn went on to adopt two daughters.

In 1891, Oscar Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas, a 22-year-old Oxford student and son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. Their close bond, which some speculate included physical intimacy (though Douglas later refuted this), led Wilde to watch as Douglas engaged with other young men for Wilde’s amusement. When the Marquess discovered this controversial affair, he confronted Wilde, leading to a legal battle. Wilde sued the Marquess, but the case backfired, resulting in Wilde being convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labor. After his release on May 19, 1897, Wilde lived his final years in poverty, isolated from society and the arts.

Drusilla, Emperor Caligula’s most cherished sister, is thought to have been compelled to divorce her husband after he ascended to power, subsequently becoming his lover. She wielded significant influence over him. Her death in 38 AD left Caligula devastated. He honored her with the status of an Augusta, mourned as a widower, and persuaded the Roman Senate to deify her as “Diva Drusilla,” equating her with Venus or Aphrodite. Drusilla was consecrated as Panthea, likely on Augustus’s birthday.

In 1837, Abraham Lincoln, then 28, met Joshua Fry Speed, 23, after moving to Springfield, Illinois, to practice law. When Lincoln attempted to purchase a bed on credit from Speed’s store, Speed instead invited him to share his room and bed. Though they had only briefly conversed before, their bond grew into a lifelong friendship. After Lincoln’s death, Speed and his family contributed funds to establish the Lincoln Memorial. This relationship exemplifies the now-obsolete concept of “Romantic Friendship”—a deep, non-sexual bond between two individuals. Such friendships were widespread until the late 19th century, when homosexuality began to be defined. Other notable examples include William Shakespeare and his “Fair Lord,” as well as Emily Dickinson and Sue Gilbert.

Al Tomaini, a towering figure who claimed to stand 8’4″ (though the Guinness Book of Records listed him as 7’4″), weighed 356 pounds (162 kg) and wore size 27 shoes. He spent much of his life as a circus giant. In 1936, while performing at the Great Lakes Exposition in Chicago, he met Jeanie Tomaini, his future wife, who was born without legs and stood only 2 ft 6 in (76 cm) tall. After retiring from the circus, the couple settled in Giant’s Camp, a circus community in Gibsonton, Florida.

In 1871, Arthur Rimbaud, a 16-year-old aspiring poet, traveled to Paris at the invitation of Paul Verlaine, a renowned French Symbolist poet. Upon Rimbaud’s arrival, Verlaine became infatuated with him, sparking a tumultuous affair that ended Verlaine’s marriage. Their relationship, fueled by absinthe and hashish, was marked by scandalous behavior and violence, including an incident where Rimbaud stabbed Verlaine in the hand. The pair later moved to England and then Brussels. On July 10, in a drunken rage, Verlaine shot Rimbaud, wounding him in the wrist. Rimbaud reported the incident, leading to Verlaine’s two-year imprisonment. They met only once more, and Rimbaud ceased writing at 21, though he is now celebrated as one of France’s most influential poets.

Patrick Stuebing, a resident of Leipzig, Germany, has sparked intense controversy due to his relationship with his biological sister, Susan Karolewski, which began in 2001. The couple has had four children, with only one, Sofia, still living with them. Patrick, an unemployed locksmith, was adopted and raised in Potsdam, only reuniting with his biological family at 23. He and Susan now live in a small apartment on the outskirts of Leipzig. Incest is illegal in Germany, and Patrick has already served a two-year prison sentence for it. In 2004, he voluntarily had a vasectomy.

Chang and Eng Bunker, conjoined twins born in Siam (their condition coined the term “Siamese Twins”), were connected at the sternum by cartilage and shared fused but functional livers. While 19th-century medicine couldn’t separate them, modern surgery could. They became U.S. citizens, owned a plantation and slaves, and married sisters Adelaide and Sarah Anne Yates on April 13, 1843. Chang fathered ten children, and Eng had twelve. Over time, the wives’ disputes led to separate households near Mount Airy, North Carolina, where the twins alternated stays every three days. They passed away on the same day in 1874.

According to Suetonius (c. 69AD – 130AD), Emperor Nero developed a profound affection for a young boy named Sporus, going so far as to attempt transforming him into a woman:

Nero castrated Sporus and endeavored to feminize him, even marrying him with full ceremonies, including a dowry and bridal veil. He paraded Sporus as his wife, accompanied by a large crowd, and treated him as such. A popular jest at the time quipped that the world might have been better off if Nero’s father, Domitius, had such a wife. Nero adorned Sporus in empress attire, took him to Greek courts and markets, and later through Rome’s Street of the Images, frequently kissing him affectionately.

As strange as that may seem, there exists an even more peculiar relationship:

Jean (or Juan) Baptista dos Santos, reportedly born in Faro, Portugal around 1843 to ordinary parents, had two functioning penises, three scrota (the outer two each containing a single testis), and a third leg. He claimed his central scrotum once held a pair of fully-formed testes, which retracted into his abdomen at age ten. Around the same time, Blanche Dumas, a high-class prostitute in Paris, had four breasts, two vaginas, and a third leg. Dos Santos traveled to Paris, and it is believed the two engaged in a passionate affair. For more on this extraordinary relationship, visit Cogitz.

Bonus: Michael Jackson

The idea of Michael Jackson being part of any relationship is undeniably strange. No further explanation needed.

This article incorporates content from the Wikipedia entries: Patrick Stuebing.