34-year-old conjoined twin Abby Hensel, of TLC's Abby and Brittany fame, has married United States Army veteran Josh Bowling.
Per TODAY, Abby tied the knot with Bowling in 2021, but the news has only just gone public after the sisters shared photos from the wedding on social media. The marriage was also confirmed by recent documents, which show the sisters and Bowling live in Minnesota, where the Hensels grew up.
The conjoined sisters were thrust into the public spotlight after an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 and went on to star in the TLC reality series Abby and Brittany, which explored their day-to-day life. The show ended after just one season, but they have since found careers in teaching in their home state.
The sisters are dicephalus conjoined twins, which means they share all organs below the waist and share a bloodstream. They also independently control the arm and leg on the respective side of their body. Abby and Brittany were born in 1990, and their parents decided against separation surgery because it could leave one or both of them dead.
"People have been curious about us since we were born, for obvious reasons," the twins said in the first episode of Abby and Brittany in 2012, per ABC News. "But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do. ... The most amazing thing about us is we are like everyone else."
The internet, as expected, had some questions for the newlyweds. The Hensels took to TikTok to respond to the "haters."
They also shared a slideshow of conjoined twins represented in ancient sculptures with the caption, "The internet is extra LOUD today. We have always been around."
In a 2003 interview, they said they would like to become mothers one day, something their mother Patty Hensel said is possible. "Yeah, we're going to be moms," said Brittany. "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."
