Thursday, 21 November

Conjoined twin secretly marries

Odd News
Facebook: Josh Bowling (R) with conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel

Conjoined twin Abby Hensel is married.

The former TLC reality star, 34, who first gained notoriety alongside sister Brittany when the pair appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996, tied the knot with Josh Bowling, a nurse and United States Army veteran, in 2021, according to public records obtained by Today.

The Hensels' Facebook profile photo appears to be a wedding image, with the conjoined twins wearing a wedding dress, while Bowling, in a grey suit, stands before them holding their hand.

According to Today, the twins are now fifth grade teachers and reside in Minnesota, where they were born and raised.

Bowling’s Facebook page also features happy images of him with the twins enjoying ice cream and traveling together. Additionally, his X profile, which is linked to his Facebook account, reads, "Christian, Father, Husband, Veteran, and occasional gamer."

PEOPLE reached out to the Abby and Brittany Hensel, as well as Bowling, but did not immediately get a response.

The Hensels are dicephalus conjoined twins, a rare form of partial twinning with two heads side by side on one torso. They share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist. Abby controls their right arm and leg, while Brittany controls the left.

Following their Oprah appearance, the Hensel's lives were documented on the TLC reality series Abby & Brittany, which followed them as they prepared to graduate from Minnesota's Bethel College and later traveled to Europe.

"People have been curious about us since we were born, for obvious reasons," the twins said in the first episode of the eight-part series, according to ABC. "But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do."

At birth, doctors presented the possibility of separating the twins. But their parents, Patty and Mike, decided against the surgery after being told there was little chance that both could survive the procedure. 

“How could you pick between the two?” Mike said in a 2001 interview with TIME.

In that same interview, he also talked about the possibility of marriage one day for Abby and Brittany. At the time, the magazine reported that they were already asking their father about finding husbands someday.

Knowing that other conjoined twins have married, he thought, why not? "They're good-looking girls. They're witty. They've got everything going for them, except they're together," Mike said.

Source: people.com