Abby and Brittany Hensel, who documented their lives in the TLC reality series “Abby & Brittany,” have a new member of the family.

Abby and Brittany Hensel, who documented their lives in the TLC reality series “Abby & Brittany,” have a new member of the family.

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel first gained national attention when they appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1996.

Now the sisters have reached a major life milestone: Abby is married.

The Hensels later starred in the feel-good TLC reality series “Abby and Brittany,” which showed them driving, traveling to Europe and even riding a moped. When the show ended after one season, Abby and Brittany had just graduated from college with degrees in education.

A lot has happened in the last decade. Abby, 34, is now married. According to public records, Abby, a teacher, and Josh Bowling, a nurse and United States Army veteran, tied the knot in 2021. The sisters also shared photos of the wedding on social media. The couple live in Minnesota, where the Hensels were born and raised.

  • kn33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    83·
    9 months ago

    So, like, realistically, he’s marrying both of them, right? I get that they can’t do that legally, but… You can’t exactly not, right?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      68·
      9 months ago

      They have found all sorts of coping strategies throughout their lives to assert their individuality, so Brittany would probably say no, she was not married to him and Abby would agree, because he married Abby and they are two different people.

      • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        40·
        9 months ago

        The sisters are both teaching fifth grade in Minnesota

        My question is do they get paid double the salary of a single teacher or not?

        • Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          57·
          9 months ago

          I kind of laughed when I read this - it would be really awkward if they weren’t both teachers.

          Abby: “Good morning class, today we’re going around the room to talk about what we did over break.”

          Brittany: "Stupid little shits, I wanted to be a pilot! We could have taken turns sleeping and been a dynamic duo for international travel 😢 "

          • bitchkat@lemmy.worldEnglish
            8·
            9 months ago

            There is the two women joined at the head where one has a job and the other is a singer.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              9·
              9 months ago

              Yep, they also have a very interesting life. What I really like about them is that the singer sings country music and her sister hates country music but has learned to cope.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          20·
          9 months ago

          According to some articles I skimmed, no, since they’re doing one job. They’re pushing for more though.

          • Etterra@lemmy.world
            12·
            9 months ago

            Well first i thought they should get 1.5 people’s salary, but then i factored in the wage gap. To make up that difference would mean. Increasing the base pay by 18%. So it’d be 118% + 59%, or 177% base pay.

            Or they could do the right thing and give them both a full wage.

  • Waldowal@lemmy.world
    81·
    9 months ago

    I’m really curious about some details. They both meet this guy. He seems interested. Does he just keep talking to one face and ignoring the other? Were he and Abby kissing, and Brittany’s all “Ew, Abby, he’s gross”. When he proposed, was he like “Will you marry me?” And they both say “yes”, and he’s like “Uh, I just meant the left side”? How do you not end up dating and marrying them both?! Maybe they are in reality, but they can’t say that due to polygamy laws?

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
      44·
      9 months ago

      That’s my suspicion. They obviously can’t legally have a plural marriage. But then again they could have such a ceremony but only one of the girls’ names on the paperwork.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
      27·
      9 months ago

      I mean they don’t have options for a legal poly marriage or some harem multi-wife practice, and they are registered as two persons in one body, I believe. In reality, yes, he can’t marry just one. A weird situation law-wise.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        9 months ago

        I was going to say “marry the one that has the worst health insurance” and then I realized I’m not as smart as I thought I was.

          • bitchkat@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            9 months ago

            Depends on their union and how well they negotiate their contract. My sister is a teacher and has quite good insurance. But more importantly, they are going to have the same insurance since they have the same employer.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
          9·
          9 months ago

          How is asking questions about how things work in such a unique question sexualizing them? Every being on the planet is the result of two people having sex so pretending like people don’t have sex is absurd.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    64·
    9 months ago

    People are getting so hung up on the sex angle, but the ramifications are more interesting. What if one of them wants to get pregnant but the other doesn’t? One consents to go through labor and delivery but the other doesn’t?

    This is all incredibly complex, but you know if Chang and Eng could make it work…

    https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/bunker-twins

    "They lived together in one house for nine years, but their wives began to quarrel. Starting in 1852, Sarah and Adelaide lived in separate houses. Chang and Eng agreed to reside in one house for three days, in which that brother made all the decisions without question. They spent the next three days at the other twin’s house, where he made all the decisions. The Bunkers faithfully held to this arrangement the rest of their lives.

    The twins returned to touring between 1849 and 1870 to support their large families. Chang and Adelaide had ten children, and Eng and Sarah had eleven children."

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      29·
      9 months ago

      Everything I’ve read or seen about them shows that they unsurprisingly have a lot of ways of coping with each other when they disagree, even when it is a major disagreement. What’s interesting is that they use “I” as a single entity when they agree and consider each other separate entities when they don’t.

      I don’t know what both think about pregnancy, but they’re school teachers, so they definitely like kids. I wonder if pregnancy is even a possibility? Or maybe unwise if their condition is genetic.

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
          5·
          9 months ago

          I remember my school teachers telling us they don’t have kids because they have enough of kids in their job, which makes perfect sense for me.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        14·
        9 months ago

        The closest anyone says is that they share a single set of reproductive organs and are a single entity “below the waist”.

        Any obstetrician worth their degree would probably consider it a high risk pregnancy due to all the unknown factors. How would an epidural work, for example? No clue. Pregnancy is a stressful event under normal circumstances, no clue what would happen here.

        In the Chang and Eng case, the twins were brothers who impregnated separate sisters, so the pregancies themselves were normal (despite being 21 or 22 of them).

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          6·
          9 months ago

          It may not even be possible for them to get pregnant. Who knows how functional those reproductive organs are?

      • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
        6·
        9 months ago

        Great use case for adoption

        (As should be always considered and promoted anyway since overpopulation is rapidly killing the planet)

    • fathog@lemmy.world
      11·
      9 months ago

      That article is a ride. All sweet stuff until

      The twins prospered and moved to Surry County, where they came to own more than one thousand acres of land and twenty-eight enslaved people.

      Wild

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        10·
        9 months ago

        I know, right? Conjoined twins in then Siam (Thailand), essentially sold into slavery, smuggled out of the country, then established as slave owners themselves… and having 21 children between them…

        There’s a movie to be made there.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    59·
    9 months ago

    They’ve had really interesting lives, especially in the way they have fiercely asserted their independence. I highly recommend reading more about them.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        8·
        9 months ago

        I don’t think looking them up on Wikipedia and reading their bio is a big privacy violation. I’m not suggesting hunting them down and taking pictures.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          9 months ago

          Idk, looking up various websites would increase search traffic for them, which might encourage journalists to pick up the story.

          I’ve read about them a bit in the past, so I’m good for now.

  • Syd@lemm.ee
    50·
    9 months ago

    One in 200,000 births results in conjoined twins? That seems way higher than I thought.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
      53·
      9 months ago

      I’d imagine most are a lot more minor than this. Baby is born with a small growth that turns out to be a malformed limb of an incomplete/reabsorbed twin, doctors remove it quickly after birth, and the baby goes on to live a normal life.

      I’ve heard of there being chimera people as well who go through most of their life assuming they’re perfectly normal until they learn that their DNA in one part of their body doesn’t match their DNA in another part of their body.

    • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zipEnglish
      20·
      9 months ago

      Yes but this is muuuch rarer because its a very clean case of it. Most of them pass away in early childhood.

  • ApeNo1@lemm.eeEnglish
    42·
    9 months ago

    “Hi everyone and thanks again for coming to the wedding. Firstly, I would like to introduce for the first time my better half Abby”. The reception room falls awkwardly silent for a moment until punctuated by the laughter of a very tipsy uncle Ron from right at the back.

    Sorry all …

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        11·
        9 months ago

        I’m sure Abby wouldn’t have done it if Brittany wasn’t on board. They all have to live together after all.

        I want to know how it works if Brittany starts seeing another guy now.

        Also, if they have one set of reproductive organs, who’s the mother? I assume they have separate DNA so they should be able to test that, right? Do the eggs by DNA belong to one of them, or is it a mix?

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
          14·
          9 months ago

          Being conjoined twins, they likely have the same DNA.

          You’ve already got to be adjusted to a very unique situation to be two people sharing a body, and I’d guess that Abby’s husband has considered and discussed the topic of Brittany’s romantic life; if those three can make things work, I suppose finding another special fourth person is possible. It’s difficult to imagine all the intricacies, but there’s seemingly no limit to the human ability to adapt.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            5·
            9 months ago

            What I think is especially interesting about them, I mentioned this elsewhere, is that when they agree, they use a unified “I” and when they disagree, they consider themselves separate. So I assume the choice to marry was an “I” or the marriage wouldn’t have happened.

            But you can’t marry two people.

  • Cheesus@lemmy.world
    17·
    9 months ago

    Not related to the marriage. They work as a 5th grade teacher, do they each get paid or is it one salary?

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
      10·
      9 months ago

      I heard they technically each hold a part time position and take turns who pays attention to the students.

      • mokus
        3·
        9 months ago

        That sounds like some kinda employment shenanigans to avoid paying them benefits or something.

        • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
          2·
          9 months ago

          The reason given is she cant do the economic work of 2 people but i do agree.

          People with disabilities have so many hidden costs in todaya world, she should be getting a proper liveable income no matter if she has a job. Cant imagine she has the same chances on the job market.

          Actually beyond that. Everyone should get a basic liveable income regardless of work and people with medical challenges should receive additional resources and care. But yeah society isn’t all that emphatic.

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
    15·
    9 months ago

    Well, they will always have someone who can weigh in as a final decision when they both disagree on something. Sadly, I think it will be a bit one-sided.

    • june@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      9 months ago

      Yea, they really are a throuple.

      I do wonder how insurance works for them too, are they treated like two individuals or do they get the benefit of having a single body and are treated as an individual?