Family matters: The history of incest on television before White Lotus

“The White Lotus” didn’t do it first.Incest has been playing out on television long before the third season of the hit HBO series explored the sexual tension between brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola).One of the earliest instances was in the late 90s/early 2000s soap opera “Passions.” Chad Harris (Donn Swaby and Charles Divins) and Whitney Russell (Brook Kerr) fall in love as teens and then learn that they’re allegedly half-siblings — but they stay together and have a son named Miles.Chad and Whitney’s incestuous relationship was controversial both on and off the show.However, it’s later revealed that the characters aren’t actually blood related.

“I believe Chad Harris-Crane’s and Whitney Russell’s incest storyline and others like it can help serve the purpose of delivering a kind of warning via a tragic morality tale, as in, ‘Don’t do this, or bad things will happen,'” Swaby, who left “Passions” and was replaced by Divins before Chad’s incest storyline played out, exclusively told The Post.The 51-year-old actor said he doesn’t watch “The White Lotus” but praised the series for tackling incest this season.“I commend the show for having the courage to explore such a taboo topic and would hope it’s being done in a way that’s honest,” he said.“How to Get Away with Murder” also covered incest in it’s final season.Frank (Charlie Weber) is revealed to be the product of siblings Hannah (Marcia Gay Harden) and Sam’s (Tom Verica) childhood incest.Meanwhile, “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon” feature numerous incestuous relationships like Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Cersei (Lena Headey), Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Daemon (Matt Smith).Last year, Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” went down the incest path with the bond between the California brothers who murdered the...