Conjoined twin and reality TV star Abby Hensel confirms marriage to army veteran after pictures show smiling bride
CONJOINED twin Abby Hensel has confirmed that she got married in a private ceremony in 2021.
The 34-year-old and her sister Brittany from Minnesota are a rare set of dicephalous twins after they survived childhood.
With their condition, the twins share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist with both of their heads side by side which are connected to the same torso.
The pair appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 and are now fifth-grade teachers.
Major milestones including college and traveling across Europe were documented on the TLC reality series “Abby and Brittany.”
PRIVATE WEDDING
However, their lives for the past decade have been more private though it was revealed that one of the sisters got married.
Public records seen by Today have revealed that Abby married US Army Veteran and nurse Josh Bowling in 2021.
Photographs from the wedding have been shared on social media pages run by the twins.
A photo from the wedding shows the twins wearing a sleeveless white dress with Abby beaming at the camera.
Another photograph showing the first dance shows Bowling dancing with the sisters who both have their hair styled in the same way with a half-up do with a bun pinned with a jewelled clip.
Bowling can be seen wearing a grey suit with his arms on the sisters’ waists as he gazes at Abby.
Abby and Josh’s relationship has been kept private and out of the public eye.
Bowling is a father-of-one and the family continues to live in Minnesota.
A picture shared on Bowling’s Facebook page shows the family with his daughter as they all smile at the camera with Abby lovingly placing her arm around the child.
The sisters’ mother Patty has previously spoken out about her children’s desire for children of their own.
In 2003 when Abby and Brittany were 16 years old, they featured in the documentary “Joined for Life.”
Patty explained that her daughters had expressed their interest in having children.
What Are Conjoined Twins?
Conjoined twins are twins that are born with their bodies physically connected.
Such twins develop after an early embryo only partially separates to create two individual fetuses and this is usually diagnosed early in pregnancy with a prenatal ultrasound.
This happens once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The majority of these are female and most are still born.
The majority of conjoined twins are connected at the chest and abdomen, but others can be connected at the head, hips, pelvis, legs, or genitalia.
Conjoined twins often share one or more of the internal organs and this impacts survival rates and the success of separation surgery.
Twins with separate sets of organs are more likely to survive than those who share.
“That is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them,” she said.
“Yeah, we’re going to be moms,” Brittany said at the time.
“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.”
The documentary also highlighted how the two sisters are individuals and like many twins have different personalities and tastes.
“Believe me, we are totally different people,” Brittany said previously.