Conjoined twin Abby Hensel, of TLC's 'Abby & Brittany,' is now married, reports say
(Images via iStock / Getty Images Plus / NazariyKarkhut and TLC)
Conjoined twin Abby Hensel, who rose to fame alongside sister Brittany on the TLC reality series "Abby & Brittany," is married, according to reports.
The former reality star, 34, quietly married nurse and U.S. Army veteran Josh Bowling in 2021, according to public records obtained by Today and reported this week.
Today and other news outlets also cited the Hensels’ Facebook profile picture, which appears to show a wedding photo – featuring the conjoined twins in a white wedding dress holding hands with a man in a gray suit.
Abby and Brittany are now fifth grade teachers and live in Minnesota, where they were born and raised, Today reported.
Pictures and videos on Bowling’s Facebook page also show the family enjoying nature hikes, ice cream and snow tubing, according to the outlet.
Conjoined twins are a rare phenomenon, happening to 1 in 50,000 to 100,000 pregnancies, according to the National Institutes of Health. But since 60% are stillborn or die shortly after birth, the true incidence is around 1 in 200,000 live births, the NIH says.
Abby and Brittany are dicephalus conjoined twins, a rare phenomenon in which the twins have two heads side by side on one torso. They have separate hearts and stomachs, one pair of arms and one pair of legs. Their spines join at the pelvis, they share a bloodstream, and share organs from the waist down.
Abby controls their right arm and leg, while Brittany controls the left.
The conjoined twins first gained notoriety in 1996 during an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Their lives were later documented on TLC, with the show following them as they worked to finish college and traveled through Europe.
The idea of separating the twins was dismissed by both parents from the start, with doctors saying there was little chance that both could survive the procedure, according to a Time interview with the family in 2001.
"How could you pick between the two?" their father, Mike, told Time.
Dr. Joy Westerdahl, the family's physician who assisted at their birth, said in 2001 that it was impossible to guess about their long-term prognosis, but marveled at their ability to synchronize such complex motions with two separate brains, including clapping hands, learning to walk, swimming and riding a bike.
In the 2003 documentary "Joined for Life," their mother said Abby and Brittany were interested in having children one day.
"That is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them," Patty said in the documentary, according to Today.
"Yeah, we're going to be moms," Brittany said. "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."
This story was reported from Cincinnati.