Conjoined twins have always turned people’s heads throughout history. After all, it’s so rare for such twins to survive childbirth, much less to grow into healthy adults. Because of this rarity, the vast majority of people never get to meet any conjoined twins, which only makes such twins even more fascinating to the general public.
Arguably, the most famous conjoined twins in the world are Abby and Brittany Hensel. The two had their own reality TV show on TLC, giving everyone a chance to know their fantastic story. And that story has continued long after the show ended, with Abby’s surprise marriage going public just last year.
Now, Abby and her husband are showing off their newborn baby. What does the baby look like? What have the twins been up to in recent years, and how did they become famous all over again? Keep reading to find out!
The incredible story of Abby and Brittany Hensel
Abby and Brittany Hensel were born in 1990. The fact that they survived was already a miracle: as WebMD reports, half of pregnancies with conjoined twins end in miscarriage or stillbirth. And of the successful births, 35 percent die within the first 24 hours. In this sense, Abby and Brittany managed to beat the odds, and they are still alive and thriving to this day.
There was only one area where these twins didn’t beat the odds. It’s exceedingly rare for surviving twins to be eligible for surgery and even rarer for them to be surgically separated. Abby and Brittany were never separated, and they still share a single body. That hasn’t kept them from getting jobs as teachers, though, and hasn’t kept Abby from finding a husband and having a baby.
Embracing life after television
The world discovered Abby and Brittany Hensel when they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996. After that, they made other media appearances, but none of them compared to their reality show. In 2012, the twins (now grown up) had their own TLC reality show named (what else?) Abby & Brittany. The show didn’t last long, but it was popular enough for millions of people to learn about these fascinating twins.
Interestingly, the Hensels didn’t use this show as a springboard for other TV series or media appearances. That is because they were both determined to live normal lives, and the show documented them completing their college degrees and beginning a teaching job. Education has remained the twins’ passion, and they currently teach at Sunnyside Elementary in New Brighton, Minnesota.
A surprise wedding goes public
As anyone who watched their reality show knows, Abby and Brittany Hensel were very passionate about becoming teachers. Considering that they landed full-time teaching jobs, it’s fair to say they achieved their life’s dream. However, it turns out that Abby discovered a new dream along the way: getting married and starting a family. And she started a family without most of her fans even knowing…at least, at first.
Abby Hensel married Joshua Bowling way back in 2021. However, they wanted to keep it a private affair, and they managed to keep this a secret for a whopping three years. But in 2024, Today confirmed that they got married. In his own way, Josh seemed happy that the cat was out of the bag: he wasted no time changing his Facebook profile picture from one of just his face to a new image featuring the conjoined twins.
Finding new fame on social media
As near as we can tell, Abby and Brittany Hensel were happy to leave fame behind after their TLC show ended, and this was likely why Abby kept her own wedding secret for several years. Once news of the marriage went public, however, nobody had anything to hide. And so the Hensels returned to social media, and it didn’t take long for them to achieve viral fame.
First, they took to TikTok in June 2024 to post a video of Abby and Josh’s wedding day dance. The video was quite sweet, with the two looking passionately in love while swaying to Adele’s hit song “Rolling In the Deep.” That same day, the twins posted another video featuring clips of their lives, set to Justine Skye’s track “Collide.”
Leave it to these twins to find instant fame on social media. Now, their making waves for a different reason: showing off Abby’s newborn baby!
And baby makes four
As with Abby and Josh’s wedding, it seems like the happy couple didn’t make any official media announcements about having a baby. Therefore, it was a major surprise (and quite the pleasant one!) to discover that the happy couple had become a happy family. Recently, the twins were sighted in public with a newborn baby, getting a car seat ready for the newborn.
So far, other details are scarce: we don’t know when the baby was born or even whether it is male or female. If history is any indicator, we’ll be hearing more about this baby whenever she feels the time is right. And if that baby takes after its mother (a woman who never let being conjoined limit her dreams), the child likely has a very, very bright future!