My ‘twins’ are also each other’s aunt and niece – people are always confused and I get shamed but it makes perfect sense
‘TWINS’ Khalani and Ezra are peas in a pod, they are both two years old and share the same DNA.
However, Khalani is in fact Ezra’s niece despite being born just four weeks apart.
This is because Berin Krenek was 40 when she gave birth to fifth child Ezra. Daughter Kimberley, whom she’d had when she was 18, was 20.
Nurse Berin, now 43, from Mildenhall, Suffolk, says that the twenty year age gap in their pregnancy has attracted plenty of abuse.
Viscious trolls
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, she says: “People were shocked when they realised I was pregnant at the same time as my own daughter.
“I was told I should be ashamed and shouldn’t be getting pregnant at my age as I was going to be a grandmother.
“They said I should be looking after my daughter and grandchild.
“We hadn’t planned to fall pregnant at the same time but actually it was really quite special going through this journey together.
“I was able to support Kimberley not only because I’d had babies before but also because I could empathise and understand how she was feeling at that time as I was feeling it too.
“I could say ‘Yes I’m feeling nauseous too’ and that I understood how tired she was. I was able to let her know that it was normal.”
Berin was 18 and living in Kenya when she fell pregnant with Kimberley after a one-night-stand.
Young mum
She said: “My family were not very happy as I was so young and unmarried at the time. In African culture, this was frowned upon. I was still in school and about to sit my GCSEs.
I gave birth to Kimberley in August 1999 then sat my exams in the October.
My parents helped me but I still had to get up to look after the baby at night, it was hard. None of my friends had kids. Most of them were at boarding school but I had to commute every day because I was a mother.
“Everyone said I was too young to be a mum and that I was a child myself.
“They were worried how it might affect my future and said I might never get married.
“I was scared as I didn’t want to disappoint my family but I wanted to go ahead with the pregnancy.
I was told I should be ashamed and shouldn’t be getting pregnant at my age as I was going to be a grandmother.
Berin Krenek
“I had secretly planned to give her up for adoption but when Kimberley was born, I fell in love with her instantly and since day one, we have always been very close.
“Sometimes people think we are sisters rather than mother and daughter.”
Berin got married aged 27 and went on to have four more children – Alexandra in 2009, Luka in 2012, Tiahna in 2018 and then in 2020, she had her youngest son Ezra, who is now two.
Mother-daughter due dates
She said: “Kimberley had just told me she was expecting a baby when I found out I was pregnant myself.
“I was 40 and Kimberley was 20 so there was a 20-year age gap but we were going through the same thing.
“I didn’t see it as that unusual as many women have babies in later life now, at 40 and even older.
“For the two of us it was a really good experience. We are very, very close so going through this journey together has been amazing.
“Kimberley was going through depression at the time and suffered very bad morning sickness so I went back into mother mode.
“I put my own pregnancy aside and was concentrating on Kimberley and making sure she was ok. We did have a lot of fun buying baby bits together – clothes and toys and getting the nurseries ready.
“I was regarded as a geriatric pregnancy because of my age. In some ways, I did find it harder.
“I had sciatica and that slowed me down a bit. I like running but in my fifth pregnancy the sciatica got in the way and I had to walk instead. I am back to running now and as active as I had been previously.”
Support network
Kimberley, now 24 and a teacher, gave birth to daughter Khalani in September 2020, four weeks before Ezra was born in October of the same year.
Kimberley said: “I felt very happy and proud to be pregnant at the same time as mum. It was a unique experience to go through.
“My mum is my best friend and being able to have her with me and go through that journey made us even closer.
“It’s also a pretty cool story to tell people!”
Berin said: it was great having each other for support.
“We all live together so the babies spend a lot of time together. They are very close and do everything together. They go to nursery together.
“People stop me all the time and ask if they are twins. Now I just say ‘ish’. It’s odd to think that Ezra is Khalani’s uncle even though he is younger than her but it will be a fun story to tell them when they get older.”