Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel with Abby's husband, Josh Bowling, and Josh's daughter on her wedding day. Photo: TikTok/ @abbyandbrittanyhensel
The inseparable lives of America’s famous conjoined twins, Abby and Brittany Hensel, has set the internet ablaze again after photos of Abby getting married surfaced on TikTok.
Fascination with the twins and their unique life was instantly revived with news of this major milestone.
The sisters first stepped into the spotlight when they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 before starring in the TLC reality series Abby and Brittany.
In the series, the conjoined twins embark on a tour of Europe where they even ride on a moped in Rome. When the show ended after one season, Abby and Brittany had just graduated from college with degrees in education.
Fast-forward about a decade away from the prying eyes of the media.
The 34-year-old twins are primary school teachers in Minnesota…and Abby is now married.
As per public records reviewed by Today.com, Abby privately wed Josh Bowling, a nurse and United States Army veteran, already in 2021.
The Hensels have said little about the wedding themselves, but on their unverified TikTok account the conjoined twins recently shared what appears to be wedding photos.
Abby is a stepmother to Josh’s daughter, Isabella, eight, from his former marriage. The couple (or family) live in Minnesota, where the Hensels were born and raised.
Bowling has shared photos and videos of the family enjoying nature hikes, ice cream, as well as snow tubing, on his Facebook page.
Their father, Mike Hensel, previously spoke about their hopes of marriage in a 2001 interview with TIME, when he said:
They’re good-looking girls. They’re witty. They’ve got everything going for them, except they’re together.
According to Today.com, dicephalus conjoined twins are an extremely rare event in delivery rooms across the world.
TIME reports that conjoined twins are always identical and is the product of a single egg that for some unknown reason failed to divide fully into separate twins during the first three weeks of gestation.
The Hensels share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist. Abby controls their right arm and leg, Brittany controls the left.
When Abby and Brittany were born in 1990, their parents decided against separation surgery, deeming it too risky. At the time, doctors said there was little chance that both would survive the operation.
If the sisters were to have a biological baby, Abby and Brittany would be the first female dicephalic twins to do so.
According to Wikipedia, conjoined brothers, Chang and Eng Bunker – born in 1811 – remarkably had 21 children between them.
Chang and Eng’s respective families lived in separate houses, where the twins took alternating three-day stays.
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