LONDON (AP) – Iceland’s president accepted the resignation of the North Atlantic island nation’s children’s minister, who quit the government over a relationship she had with a teenager more than three decades ago.
Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir stepped down after national broadcaster RUV revealed last week that she had a child 35 years ago when she was 23 and the baby’s father was 16.
RUV said the relationship began after the pair met at a youth group when the teen was 15.
Iceland’s age of consent is 15, but it is an offense for an adult to have sexual relations with a teenager they teach, employ or mentor.
Thórsdóttir confirmed the relationship in a statement, saying she was not a leader of the group, just a member, and that “relationships between people of that age were not at all uncommon, even if they were not desirable.”
She said the relationship lasted only a few weeks, though the father was present at the child’s birth.
RUV reported that the father sought access to the couple’s son through the government and religious institution, but was granted only occasional visits, though he paid child support for 18 years.
