British grandmother, 51, marries bin Laden's son, 27
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | 9:14 AM ET
CBC News
A 51-year-old British grandmother has married the 27-year-old son of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, British news reports said Wednesday.
It would be the sixth marriage for Jane Felix-Browne, who told The Times she met Omar Osama bin Laden last September while horseback riding near Egypt's Great Pyramid.
The two were married in April after she popped the question, reported the Sun. Felix-Browne said she doesn't intend to take his name.
"It would be nice if, like any other married woman, I could stand up and say this is my husband and this is his name, but I have to be realistic about things," she told The Times.
"I hope people don't judge me too harshly. I married the son, not the father."
Omar bin Laden, who works as a scrap metal dealer in Jedda, is one of 17 children fathered by Osama bin Laden, the man who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Felix-Browne, who was reportedly in Egypt to receive treatment for multiple sclerosis, said Omar Osama last saw his famous father in 2000.
"He left his father because he did not feel it was right to fight or to be in an army," she said.
Other reports have suggested he split from his father following the Sept. 11 attacks because of an argument about tactics.
Felix-Browne, who has three sons and five grandchildren, says she is fine with being Omar bin Laden's second wife. He is the father of a two-year-old child with his first wife.
"I haven't seen her but I have spoken to her for about an hour on the telephone," she told The Times. "She is fine about it."
A parish councillor in the English village of Moulton, Felix-Browne told The Times she speaks with her new husband every day by telephone or online and hopes he can get a visa to visit Britain.
"Because my husband's name is bin Laden he finds it very difficult to travel anywhere," she told the Sun.
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