REYKJAVIK, March 22 — Iceland’s minister for children, Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir, resigned this week after admitting she had a son with an underaged boy when she was 23, the BBC reported today.
According to media reports, their relationship began when he was 15 and she was 22 and was his counsellor.
“It’s been 36 years, a lot of things change in that time and I would definitely have dealt with these issues differently today,” Thórsdóttir, now 58, was quoted as saying.
In an interview with Icelandic media, Thórsdóttir said her relationship with the boy who has been named as Eirík Ásmundsson started when she was counsellor at a religious group called Trú og líf (Religion and Life), which he joined due to a difficult home life.
She gave birth when she was 23 and the boy 16.
The BBC reported that the age of consent in Iceland is 15, but sexual relationships are still prohibited if one is a teacher or mentor, or if one is a financial dependent, or a subordinate to the other.
Those convicted can be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison.
Ásmundsson was reported to have been present at the birth of his son with Thórsdóttir and had contact for one year.
He was later reported to have been denied access to his son after Thórsdottir met another man whom she later married even as he paid child support for 18 years.
Thórsdottir is also reported to have said she has no plans to resign as an MP despite relinquishing her ministerial post.
“I understand… what it looks like,” she was quoted as saying, adding that it is “very difficult to get the right story across in the news today”.
Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir called it a “serious matter” and confirmed Thórsdóttir resigned immediately after the revelation surfaced through Icelandic media and a complaint from the man’s relative.
“This is a very personal matter [and] out of respect for the person concerned, I will not comment on the substance,” Frostadóttir was quoted as saying by the BBC.
