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June 10, 2025 13 mins

The Strawberry Letter heard on The Steve Harvey Morning Show Tuesday, June 10th, 2025: Subject - "I Don't Think We're Really Cousins"

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, guys, it's time now for today's Strawberry Letter and listen.
If you need advice on relationships, dating, work, sex, parenting,
and more, please submit your Strawberry Letter to STEVEHARVEYFM dot
com and just click submit Strawberry Letter and we could
be reading your letter live on the air, just like
we're gonna read this one right here, right now.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Okay, buggle up and hold on tight. We got it
for it you here. It is a Strawberry Letter.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Thank you. Nephew's subject.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I don't think we're really cousins, Dear Stephen Shirley. In
high school, I liked a girl and she liked me.
We talked on the phone and hung out together all
the time, and her mom and my mom were close too,
so she always was at my house or I was
at hers. By the time we graduated from high school,
we were even closer, and I told her that I

(00:48):
wanted her to be more than my friend. She's always
been really close to her mom and tells her everything,
so she told her mom that she and I were dating.
Her mom told her that I was her cousin. When
she told me we were related, I felt strange because
we had kissed a few times, we never questioned it.
Though we stopped dating and remained very close cousins, we

(01:11):
still did everything together and told each other everything, and
by the time we were in our mid twenties, we
had both had a bunch of bad relationships and always
ended up back together. I realized that I loved my
quote unquote cousin and she's a perfect woman for me.
So I finally asked my mom if we were really related.

(01:31):
My mom said, we're related somewhere down the line, but
there is no way for us to find out now
because all of the older relatives are deceased. I told
my mom that I'm in love with her and I
want to be with her. My mom told me to
follow my heart. I couldn't wait to tell my cousin
how I really felt, and I was relieved when she
told me she's been in love with me forever. Since then,

(01:53):
we've made love a few times, and I asked her
to marry me. She wants to do a search of
our family tree first. I don't think we're cousins and
this is only postponing our happiness. Should we search for
answers or not? Hmm, Well, I'm with you on this one,
I don't know. I just don't believe your guys are cousins.
I don't believe. I think maybe you know, her mom

(02:15):
told her that because she didn't want you guys dating
for whatever reason.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
And you know, I.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Don't want you guys, not because I don't want it
to be true or anything. I just don't believe your mom.
Both of them are telling the truth. Even your mom
said you were related somewhere down the line, she didn't
even know, and she said there's no one in your
family to validate it. But I mean, there are ways
you can search to find out. It's just, I don't know,

(02:42):
suspicious the way they handled everything and the way they
told you, and for that very reason, Yes, I think
you should find out if you're related. I think you
should do the search. I mean, knowledgeous power, the truth
will set you free. What if you want to have
children down the line, you know this is something you
should know, whether or not you're related.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
There's a lot to consider.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
You need a fact so you can make an informed,
a clear headed, right decision, and nothing just based on
your emotions. Like your mom told you, just to follow
your heart. It sounds like you don't care, though, if
your cousins are not and your mom certainly doesn't care,
but your girl wants to know and it's important to her.

(03:23):
So I think you should do the search, and you know,
whatever you guys find out, let the ships fall, you
know where they may. I don't think you're really cousins.
I don't know, and if you find out that you're not,
then you can move forward.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Steve, Well, this is a short response for me because
I don't even understand. There's no advice to give in
this letter, like you don't know them. I have sections
why I break down what somebody said and what the
other person said is none of that in him?

Speaker 3 (03:53):
And he just wants to know should they search? That's
his question.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Anyway, It ain't about that to me. If your mother
if the woman that she's really close to, and y'all
been over each other's house, if that ain't your mother's sister,
and that woman that's not your other's sister, this girl

(04:17):
that you're dating, and okay, let me put you the
woman and your mama are not sisters, and then her
daughter is the woman you love that ain't your cousin.
So now that's established right there. Now this y'all cousin

(04:38):
somewhere down the line. Black people know what's happening. I
fear if you lamb if all of them is dead.
Black people know what's happening.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Now. What didn't happen is.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
One of the men in the family and strayed off somewhere,
had a child out of where, and one of your
aunts or mama's is them. Now everybody dead?

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Stuff. Y'all got bibles? Open up there with old bibles
and read who who? You ain't gonna see your name?

Speaker 4 (05:13):
And there, well, now once you don't see your name,
this open and shut case. They know all the old
people dead. Well, hot man, So what are we talking
about here? So I don't really think it's a case
of if you do the search, what you're gonna find,
you're not gonna find anything. And y'all already you were

(05:36):
in love with the girl. She in love with the girl,
I mean, she in love with you. I mean what
y'all if.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
They want kids, they're too far down the line for
that to affect anything you're saying.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
I think they're way Wait. Let me tell you something.
It was something dangerous. The boy's mother would not have
said follow your heart.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
But the other mothers was the one that said their cousins.
I think she said it because she didn't want them
to date.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
She just said that, well, okay, tell her mama, ask
or ask her mama how.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
But she didn't even.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Tell how these She can't even tell how these other
two is related, the two women.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
What's their relationship?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
They're just they're just really close.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
You know, only okay, cousins.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, but they did it, you know they did it right, Yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
In the letter.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
They said it in the letter, Yes, in the letter.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
We'll have part two of Steve.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Coming up at twenty three minutes after be our subject.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
I don't think we're really cousins. We'll get back into
it right after this.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
You're listening Steve Hardy Morning Show.

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Speaker 1 (07:27):
All right, come on, Steve, let's recap today's interesting Strawberry letters.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Subject. I don't think we're really cousins.

Speaker 6 (07:34):
All right.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
This guy was in high school. He liked a girl
and they she liked him. They talked on the phone,
hung out together all the time. Her mom and my
mom were close too, so she was always at my house.
Never once in this letter does this say her mom
and his mom was related. By the time they graduated

(07:57):
high school, we were even close. I told her, we
want to be more than friends. She's always been really
close to her mom and tell us everything. So she
told her mom she and I were dating. Her mom
told her I was her cousin. But your mama ain't
related to the boys.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Mama, they're just clumbed.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
So now where that come from? Well, she told me
we related. I felt strange because I had kissed a
few times. We never questioned it.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Told we stopped dating and remained close everything together. Then
they went through a bunch of bad relationships and always
ended up back together. And then he said, I realized
I loved my cousin and she's a perfect woman for me.
So this dude go to ask his mama if they
really related. The mother said, y'all related somewhere down the line,

(08:55):
but ain't no way to find out because all the
older relatives are dead.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
You compline, well, okay, when's we talking about this folk?

Speaker 4 (09:05):
I told my mom that I'm in love with her
and I want to be with her. My mom told
me to follow my heart. So then he ran and
told the girl, who is he thinks his cousin, how
it really felt. And he was relieved when she told
me she been in love with me forever. Well then
since then they'd have made love a few times, and
I asked her to marry me. She wants to do

(09:28):
a search of our family tree first because she don't
want to come up get in bass. You know, then
half these people you think it's dead gonna show up
at the wedding.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Well it ain't this strange.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm birstay At Gertrue's niece.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
You know, Frederick was your uncle, great great great great uncle,
Frederick Frederick Douglas. Boy, you got afro just like young being.
So she wants to do a search and to think.
And he said I don't think we cousins, and this
is only postponing our happiness.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Should we search for answers or not? Okay, let me
explain something to you. Son.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
When you get through searching, it ain't gonna change one
thing you feel about this girl.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Come on, boy, when.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
You get through searching, it ain't gonna erase the fact
that y'all in love with each other and y'all being together.
It ain't gonna erase nothing, no matter what the search say.
And if you find out you somewhere way down the line,
how far down the line is it?

Speaker 5 (10:37):
Now?

Speaker 2 (10:37):
How many people got.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
To die save?

Speaker 1 (10:41):
So?

Speaker 6 (10:41):
Well?

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Are you evidence is dead? Down the line is dead?

Speaker 4 (10:51):
But your mother and her mother ain't even related? So
what are y'all talking about?

Speaker 3 (10:57):
See?

Speaker 1 (10:57):
I think her mother didn't want them miss date because
immediately when she told him that they stop dating.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
If there's no relation between the two friends, well that
could be happening because maybe they just friends and the
two kids is in other families.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's a possibility.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
That's why I don't think their cousins. I don't think
it will hurt anything to do with search them.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
See the problem with that is we're talking about two
mothers though.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
See, once you have mothers involved, it ain't No, you
ain't in the family.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
What you mean this woman is the mother of the boy.
Follow your heart is the mother of the girl. Right,
So how are these two kids related?

Speaker 2 (11:52):
How am I missing something?

Speaker 3 (11:56):
It could be through Could it be through marriage? I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Two women were married to the same brothers. Are some
friends that could happen, But.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Now, yeah, I don't think they're I just don't think
they're related.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
What's that test you take? Did we had that test
one day? What if the name of that thing ancestry doctor.
That's it right there.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
I just did one. I just did a test. I
just did it.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
I had people do mind for me.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
So that's what I'm saying. You don't have to have
living relatives, you know. So his mom said, everybody's dead
to prove whether or not there.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
I can find stuff on my mother's side, but he
goes back to my father and it stops.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
So if down the line ain't here, you can still
find out what's going on.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
He love it, though, What's what's gonna happen to him?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, she loves him, she wants she's the one that
wants to know. I mean you do have to consider. Yeah,
you have smaller children and everything.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
Are you out, Steve? You're done well, I told you,
because you got awfully quiet right there.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
It was hard to raise anyway.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Wait, that's the truth.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
You said them. Oh yeah, you're going.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
To have a situation with him if there ain't nothing
wrong with him.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
All right, listen, guys.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
You can leave your comments on Today's letter on Instagram,
at Steve Harvey FM, and check out the Strawberry Letter
podcast on demand. Because free never sounded so good. You
can download it today. You're listening to the Steve Harvey
Morning Show.
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Host

Shirley Strawberry

Shirley Strawberry

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