Iceland's children's minister resigned Sunday after it was revealed she had a child with a teenager 35 years ago. At the time, Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir was 23 and the father was 16; the two met at a church youth group when the boy was 15, the AP reports. Iceland's age of consent is 15, but laws restrict relationships between adults and teenagers if the adult is a teacher, employer, or mentor of the teen. Thórsdóttir said in a statement that she had been only a member of the church group, not a leader of it, and that "Relationships between people of that age were not at all uncommon, even if they were not desirable." But the BBC reports she was a counselor for the group when the two met.
She says their relationship lasted just a few weeks, but the father was present at the child's birth and paid child support for 18 years. She claims he didn't do much to pursue a relationship with the child. But local media reports he was involved with the child for the first year, until Thórsdóttir met the man who would become her current husband, and implies that Thórsdóttir restricted his access to the child from that time on, CNN reports. Thórsdóttir resigned officially at a State Council meeting with President Halla Tómasdóttir and government ministers Sunday. She remains a lawmaker with the People's Party under Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir and says she has no plans to leave parliament. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)