Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel break silence after news of Abby’s secret wedding went viral – as they send cryptic message to ‘all the haters’

By James On Mar 29, 2024

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel have broken their silence after news emerged that one of them is now married.

“The internet is extra LOUD today,” the twins, 34, said on their joint TikTok account on Thursday after the world learned that Abby had married nurse and Army veteran Josh Bowling, 33.

Abby and Brittany shared images of ancient sculptures featuring conjoined twins, adding, “We’ve always been there.”

The famous twins also posted another TikTok with a photo with Josh and wrote, “This is a message to all the haters out there. If you don’t like what I do, but look at everything I do, you’re still a fan.’

Abby and Josh got married in 2021, but didn’t share the news on their social media until last year.

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel have broken their silence after news emerged that one of them is now married, calling it a message ‘to the haters out there’

Abby and Brittany also shared images of ancient sculptures featuring conjoined twins, adding, “We’ve always been there.”

Here’s Abby (pictured left) stunning in a white floor-length dress on her wedding day

Abby (pictured right) dances with her groom on her wedding day, wearing a beautiful white lace dress

One of the few dicephalus twins in history to survive infancy, Abby and her sister Brittany rose to fame on their eponymous TLC show that chronicled their major life events, including high school graduation and job searches .

TikTok account @abbyandbrittanyhensel recently posted a clip showing Abby’s wedding day – and a Facebook account titled Britt And Abby also featured a photo of the happy couple.

The couple share one body and from the waist down all their organs, including the intestines, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared

For the ceremony, details of which were revealed, took place in 2021, the twins wore a sleeveless wedding dress with lace details, while the groom wore a gray suit.

A video believed to have been taken by one of their guests and shared on social media showed the twins and the groom dancing during the big day.

Another showed Josh’s daughter wearing a floral bridesmaid dress and walking down the aisle, holding a sign that read, “Daddy… Here Comes Your Bride.”

Presumably the father-of-one, who works with hospice patients, the twins live together, with Josh’s Facebook page showing the family – including his young daughter – enjoying nature walks, ice creams and fancy dress parties for Halloween.

The couple share one body and from the waist down all their organs, including the intestines, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared.

In a documentary filmed when the girls were teenagers, their mother said they would like to have children of their own one day. She explained, “That’s probably something that could work, because those organs do work for them.”

In another interview, Brittany reiterated their desire to have families of their own, saying, “The whole world doesn’t need to know who we’re seeing, what we’re doing and when we’re going to do it. But believe me, we are completely different people.’

One of the few dicephalus twins in history to survive infancy, Abby and her sister Brittany (pictured in childhood) rose to fame on their eponymous TLC show that chronicled their major life events, including their high school graduation and looking for a job.

Abby (pictured left) and Brittany appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996

They have always stayed away from speculation about their private lives and a decade ago they dismissed the rumor that Brittany was engaged as a “stupid joke”, but even as teenagers they talked 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, according to ABC News. ‘But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe that we could do anything we wanted.”

In a 2001 interview with Time, the twins’ father Mike said that his daughters had already asked if they could find a husband one day.

Knowing that other conjoined twins are married, he explained: why not? ‘They’re pretty girls. They are witty. They have everything together, except being together,” he added.

The twins, who have their own birth certificate and passport, were raised Christian by their parents, a nurse and a carpenter.

Abby and Brittany are now both fifth-grade math teachers at an elementary school in New Brighton, Minnesota, where they were born and raised.

There is only one twin in the world with the same condition: brothers Ayşe and Sema Tanrıkulu who were born in Turkey in 2000.

How conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel defied the 1% survival rate: Couple who share a body and major organs are the only female twins in the world with their condition

Conjoined twins occur when the skin or internal organs of siblings are fused together.

Only one in 40,000 twins are born connected in some way, and only 1 percent of those survive the first year.

Conjoined twins are caused when a fertilized egg begins to split into two embryos a few weeks after conception, but the process stops before it is complete.

The most common type is twins joined at the chest or abdomen.

The success of separation surgery depends on where the twins are joined. Doctors can only tell which organs the siblings share and therefore plan surgery after they are born. At least one twin survives 75 percent of the time.

The most famous conjoined twin pair was Chang and Eng Bunker, born in 1811 and traveling with PT Barnum’s circus. They were born in Siam and were known as the Siamese twins.

The Hensel girls are the rarest form of conjoined twins, the result of a single fertilized egg that is not properly separated in the womb, resulting in dicephalic parapagus – where the twins have two heads and one body with two arms and two legs.

They have two spines (which meet at the pelvis), two hearts, two esophagus, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders, four lungs (two of which are connected), one liver, one rib cage, a shared circulatory system and partially shared nervous systems.

From the waist down, all organs, including the intestines, bladder and reproductive organs, are divided.

While they were born with three arms, one was surgically removed.

Although Brittany – the left twin – cannot feel anything on the right side of the body and Abigail – the right twin – cannot feel anything on her left side, their limbs move instinctively as if coordinated by one person, even when typing emails on the computer.

It is rare for twins as conjoined as Abby and Brittany to survive into adulthood, but nevertheless they are in good health, with no heart defects or organ failure.

There is only one twin in the world with the same condition: brothers Ayşe and Sema Tanrıkulu who were born in Turkey in 2000.