Minister for children resigns after admitting having a child with a teenager

Minister for children in Iceland on Sunday, March 23, 2025, tendered his resignation to Iceland’s president.

Media reports say the Minister quit the government over a relationship she had with a teenager more than three decades ago.

Iceland’s President has since accepted her resignation.

Ásthildur Lóa Thórsdóttir stepped down after national broadcaster RUV revealed last week that she had a child 35 years ago.

She said this was when she was 23 and the baby’s father was 16.

RUV said the relationship began after the pair met at a church youth group when the teen was 15.

Iceland ’s age of sexual consent is 15, but it is an offense for an adult to have sex with a teenager they teach, employ or mentor.

Thórsdóttir confirmed the relationship in a statement, saying she was not a leader of the church group, just a member.

She said that “relationships between people of that age were not at all uncommon, even if they were not desirable.”

Thórsdóttir 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 church.

However, he was granted only occasional visits, though he paid child support for 18 years.

Thórsdóttir, who said the father had made little attempt to establish a relationship with his son, officially stepped down at a meeting Sunday of the State Council.

The meeting involved government ministers and President Halla Tómasdóttir.

Although she has left the government, she remains a lawmaker for the People’s Party.

The party is part of a coalition government led by Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir of the Social Democratic Alliance.

Iceland is a volcanic island nation tucked below the Arctic Circle with a population of less than 400,000.

Its parliament, founded in 930 by Viking settlers, is arguably the world’s oldest legislature.

Online reports say people from Iceland wait to see how Thórsdóttir would continue after her resignation.

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