Marina Balmasheva: Russian blogger to marry stepson she raised

Russian blogger Marina Balmasheva raised Vladimir for 13 years when he was just a child. Now, she’s marrying him.

Popular Russian blogger Marina Balmasheva is gearing up to marry her stepson – after recently divorcing his dad.

She’s been raising Vladimir since he was a child. He’s now 20 years old, and there’s a 15-year age gap between them.

Ms Balmasheva posted a before and after picture of the couple on Instagram, showing her fiance 13 years ago, when he was just seven years old, and now.

The influencer, from the western Russian region of Krasnodar Krai, has copped a lot of flak for the relationship.

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The first photo shows Ms Balmasheva when she was 22 years old, and Vladimir just seven. After watching him grow up for 13 years, romance bloomed.

“You never know how life will turn out and when you will meet a person who makes you smile,” Ms Balmasheva said on the post, which has been translated to English.

“I know that some will judge us, others will support us, but we are happy and wish you to be as well.”

She has known Vladimir since he was seven years old.

They plan to get married and have kids.

Ms Balmasheva has 420,000 Instagram followers after starting the account to document her weight-loss journey.

But thousands of these followers were not impressed with her switch to a younger man.

Although many of the comments were in Russian, when roughly translated they were largely critical of the decision.

Netizen 'SvetlanaNakhshumova' commented: “What shocks me most is that this boy grew up before her very eyes.”

Ms Balmasheva defended herself by saying she is very much in love with Vladimir.

She also revealed that she wants to have children with Vladimir and that they are currently planning their wedding.

Ms Balmasheva was just 22 when she first married. She lived with her husband Alexey Shavyrin, now 45, for over 10 years before the relationship ended in divorce.

Russian blogger Marina Balmasheva with her now ex-husband, who is 45 years old.

Ms Balmasheva reportedly adopted her ex-husband's five children when they were together.

Now she plans to continue raising these children, while also marrying Vladimir.

Ex-husband Mr Shavyrin revealed he found out about the relationship in March this year.

“I could not fall asleep one night when I heard them having sex,” he told Russian talk show Pryamoy Efir.

“Then I understood that Marina was cheating on me with my son.

“A few minutes later she just came and lay down next to me. I didn’t tell her a word that night.”

The husband said he did not know how to act after finding out about his wife’s infidelity and waited weeks before confronting her about it.

They have since divorced, and she’s now already organised her next marriage.