You can't make it up.
This won't make it much better for Mrs. Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir, but she was 22 years old at the time of this relationship. The 16-year-old was a member of her church group.
Thórsdóttir tendered her resignation from her ministerial post after being summoned by Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir on Thursday.
'This is a very personal matter [and] out of respect for the person concerned, I will not comment on the substance,' the PM said.
Get this: Icelandic news outlet RUV says the teen, Eric, was in the room with her when she had the baby - and even paid child support for 18 years! This, despite the fact that Thórsdóttir allegedly denied the boy access to their child throughout the years, especially after her marriage. Thórsdóttir says the father actually disappeared during this time, as men have been known to do in these situations. She also said he initiated the relationship.
Eric says he never considered himself a victim in this situation, but states that he was in a difficult place in life when he sought out the religious congregation. His youth, and especially his adolescence, proved to be very heavy and home conditions were difficult.
The age of consent in Iceland is 15, so Thórsdóttir isn't in trouble in that regard. It is illegal, however, to be intimate with someone under 18 if you're their teacher or mentor, which could be a problem if Thórsdóttir was a leader/counselor in the church group. Thórsdóttir denies that she was.
Regardless, this isn't really a good look, especially for someone who went on to become Minister of Education and Children's Affairs for the nation of Iceland.
Thórsdóttir is resigning her post; however, she will still remain in parliament until the next election cycle.
Here's what she had to say about the relationship:
‘I understand… what it looks like,' Thórsdóttir said after being forced to come clean on the decades-old tryst, arguing it is ‘very difficult to get the right story across in the news today.'
‘It's been 36 years, a lot of things change in that time and I would definitely have dealt with these issues differently today,' she added.
I can sympathize with the "very difficult to get the right story across in the news today" bit.
But if you don't want to be featured in an outlet that specializes in news that's too crazy for satire, don't sleep with 16-year-olds and then accept a post to lead a government agency that looks out for the welfare of kids.
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