Abby and Brittany Hensel secret wedding to Josh Bowling as the Minnesota conjoined twins now seek to become mothers and have children since getting married.
An American teacher who shot to fame on a reality TV series with her conjoined twin sister has confided in wanting to become a mother after revealing she secretly married three years ago.
Abby Hensel, now 34, from Minnesota, tied the knot with Josh Bowling, 33, a nurse and army veteran in 2021, and father-of-one, who works with hospice patients, according to public records obtained by TODAY.
According to the program, Abby and her sister Brittany Hensel, are now fifth grade teachers and reside in Minnesota, where they were born and raised.
Conjoined twins sex life mystery – so how would it work?
‘Yeah, we’re going to be moms,’
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.
In a documentary filmed when the girls were teenagers, their mother said they were keen to have children of their own one day, explaining: ‘That is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them.’
‘Yeah, we’re going to be moms,’ Brittany agreed.
Abbey agreed saying: ‘Yeah, we are going to be mums one day, but we don’t want to talk about how it’s going to work yet.’
The pair can eat, write and complete tasks separately from one another, but share a single body, and from the waist down, all their organs, including the intestine, bladder and reproductive organs.
This means they can conceive a child in the conventional way, but it’s unclear who would legally be the child’s mother according to the Daily Mail.
We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do.’
In another interview, Brittany reiterated their desire to have families of their own, saying: ‘The whole world doesn’t need to know who we are seeing, what we are doing and when we are going to do it. But believe me, we are totally different people.’
Abby added: ‘Yeah, we are going to be moms one day, but we don’t want to talk about how it’s going to work yet.’
Abby’s relationship with Josh, who is a father-of-one, has gone under the radar until now, with the twins leading a quieter life out of the spotlight in the past 10 years.
They have always shut down speculation about their private life and a decade ago, they dismissed a rumor that Brittany was engaged as a ‘dumb joke’, but even as teenagers they spoke about wanting to have children.
‘People have been curious about us since we were born, for obvious reasons,’ the twins said in the first episode of their eight-part series in 2012, according to ABC News. ‘But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do.’
The twins, who have their own birth certificates and passports, were raised Christian by their parents, a nurse and a carpenter.
In a 2001 interview with TIME, the twins’ father Mike said his daughters had already then asked about finding husbands one day.
Knowing that other conjoined twins have married, he explained, why not? ‘They’re good-looking girls. They’re witty. They’ve got everything going for them, except they’re together,’ he added.
In the same interview, parents Patty and Mike asked if they ever considered having the twins separated, affirmed they never gave it any serious thought because of the risk both sisters might die or be left with such severe disabilities their quality of life would be compromised.
‘How could you pick between the two?’ Mike told the show.
Public curiosity and rise to prominence
On their TikTok account @abbyandbrittanyhensel, a clip was recently posted showing off Abby’s wedding day which took place back in 2021.
A video thought to have been captured by one of their guests and shared on social media showed the twins and the groom enjoying a dance during the big day.
Another showed Josh’s daughter sporting a floral bridesmaid’s dress and walking down the aisle, holding a sign that read: ‘Daddy… Here Comes Your Bride’.
Abby and Brittany first captivated the world in 1996 when they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the cover of Life Magazine.
They then lived a quiet, normal life with their family, keeping away from the media spotlight until they agreed to appear on a documentary for TLC when they turned 16.
When the Hensel twins were born on March 7, 1990, doctors warned their parents Patty and Mike that they were unlikely to survive the night. But that prediction was to prove wildly wrong.
They also stunned doctors with their astonishing co-ordination while playing the piano and sports. Each has control over one side of the body, with Abby controlling the right hand side and Brittany the left, according to the BBC.
Normal in every aspiration with one special caveat
‘When it comes to decisions, there are compromises we have to make,’ Abby said when discussing the twins’ co-ordination on their show. ‘We take turns. We want to work it so each of us is happy and we find a happy medium.’
Growing up, they enjoyed sports such as bowling, volleyball, cycling, softball and swimming.
Speaking previously, Brittany, who alongside her sibling graduated from Bethel University in Minnesota, said: ‘Believe me, we are totally different people.’
The twins are also a different height, with Abbey 5ft 2in and her sister 4ft 10in. Brittany has to stand on tip toe to ensure they maintain their balance.
In infancy, a third undeveloped arm was removed from the twins’ chest and aged 12 they underwent surgery to correct scoliosis – curvature of the spine – and expand their chest cavity to prevent future breathing difficulties.
In 2003, Abby and Brittany featured in a documentary titled Joined For Life in which Patty confirmed her children were interested in becoming moms themselves one day.
“That is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them,” she said.
Brittany confirmed their hopes for the future at the time, saying: “Yeah, we’re going to be moms. We haven’t thought about how being moms is going to work yet.
‘But we’re just 16 — we don’t need to think about that right now.’
If and when the sisters become pregnant (which technically is possible) it will likely be a challenge who will legally the mother, nevertheless the twins will likely relish in the challenge and equally share in the task of being mothers as they have shared like most sisters in many tasks, except for the odd coincidence the siblings also happened to be co-joined and adamant that they too will also live a normal life.
