It took three years to confirm, but major media outlets, including the U.S. Sun, have revealed that conjoined twin Abby Hensel privately married Josh Bowling in 2021. Abby and her sister Brittany are now 34 years old, and these twins from Minnesota became one of the rarest sets of “dicephalous twins” to survive childhood. Josh is a US Army veteran and also a practicing nurse.
Abby and Brittany posted photographs of the wedding about two years later. Abby and Brittany shared a sleeveless white wedding dress for her big day, and the Sun described their bridal hairstyle as “a half-updo with a bun pinned with a jeweled clip.”
One striking photo from the wedding is the first dance. Josh wore a grey suit as he shared the tender moment with his new wife and sister-in-law.
Today.com confirmed on March 27th that they’d seen public records of Abby and Josh’s wedding. The couple continues to live in Minnesota, close to where Abby and Brittany grew up.
According to the New York Post, Abby and Josh “kept their marriage under wraps from the public eye until 2023.” Last year, wedding photos were shared on Abby and Brittany’s joint TikTok account.
The Post also reported that a “resurfaced clip” taken by one of their wedding guests was posted on Facebook. Heidi Bowling, Josh’s Relative, posted the 20-second video of Josh and Abby dancing and kissing at their wedding reception. Josh often posts accounts of their lives on Facebook, and Today wrote, “The family enjoys nature hikes, ice cream, and snow tubing.”
Abby and Brittany Have Always Wanted to Be Moms
Abby and Brittany are teachers who share a fifth-grade classroom. Josh has a child from a previous relationship and shared a “family photo” of his daughter and wife. The photo shows Abby with her arm wrapped around her stepdaughter.
Abby and Brittany’s lives have been the subject of various reality shows and TV documentaries. One documentary, “Joined for Life,” came out when the twins turned 16.
The sisters and their mom discussed many shocking details about existing as conjoined twins. Abby and Brittany insisted they were different people with different personalities, which made life challenging and fulfilling as they learned to work together in every way.
Abby and Brittany’s mom, Patty, also revealed a stunning detail in “Joined for Life.” She confessed that her daughters had always wanted to have children of their own one day.
In the documentary, Patty explained that having kids might be possible for Abby and Brittany. She said, “This is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them.”
Brittany also revealed her desire to have a baby one day. In the documentary, she said, “Yeah, we’re going to be moms.” However, she admitted they hadn’t yet determined “how being moms is going to work.”
But Brittany wasn’t stressing over it twenty-one years ago. At the time, she said that she and her sister were “just 16 — we don’t need to think about that right now.”
Doctors Originally Wanted to Separate the Sisters
The statistics on conjoined twins are pretty depressing, and the fact that Abby and Brittany are happy and thriving is a real-life miracle in itself. In its recent report, Today.com explained that conjoined twins occur in about one in every 200,000 live births. While many conjoined twins who survive are girls, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia sadly reported that most conjoined twins are stillborn.
Patty and her husband Mike had to decide whether or not to risk an operation to separate Abby and Brittany after they were born alive. Their doctors advised that one twin might survive the operation, but it was highly doubtful that both girls would make it.
Mike did a shocking interview with Time magazine when his conjoined twins were three years old. Mike asked, “How could you pick between the two?”
Abby and Brittany share the lower half of their body, including their bloodstream and organs below the waist. Abby “owns” the right side of their body and controls that arm and leg, and Brittany controls the left side.
