Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel want the world to know they’re here to stay — like it or not.
“The internet is extra LOUD today,” the twins, 34, captioned a March 28 TikTok video showing various ancient sculptures of conjoined twins. “We have always been around.”
They were responding to news of Abby’s marriage to nurse and United States Army veteran Josh Bowling, which took place in 2021. The couple only revealed about the ceremony in 2023 when posting photos on their TikTok account, @abbyandbrittanyhensel.
Abby and Brittany Hensel and Josh Bowling. Heidi Bowling / Facebook Abby and Brittany Hensel with wedding guests. @abbyandbrittanyhensel/TikTok Abby and Brittany Hensel and Josh Bowling at the 2021 wedding nuptials. Heidi Bowling/ FacebookExplore More
Renewed attention was focused on the twins, and Bowling, when a clip from one of their wedding guests, Heidi Bowling, resurfaced on Facebook showing an intimate moment from the nuptials. In the video, the couple danced and kissed at the wedding reception, at which Abby and her sister wore an all-white, sleeveless bridal gown and Bowling wore a grey suit.
Bowling is staring into Abby’s eyes while Brittany supports her.
Abby and Brittany, who live in Minnesota, have largely stayed under the radar since their eight-episode 2012 TLC reality show “Abby & Brittany” tracked their everyday lives as they wrapped up college and entered into adulthood.
They first came to the public’s attention in 1996 when they appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and were also the subject of a 2007 documentary “Extraordinary People: The Twins Who Share a Body.”
They were born as dicephalus conjoined twins, a rare condition when two heads are on a single body with one genital system.
Conjoined twin Abby Hensel, left, married Army vet Josh Bowling in 2021. Joshua Bowling / Facebook Abby and Brittany Hensel with Josh Bowling and his 8-year-old daughter, Isabella. Joshua Bowling / FacebookBrittany controls the left limbs while Abby controls the right. They each have their own heart, brain, lungs, stomach and kidney but share organs including the liver and bladder.
Their parents, Mike and Patty Hensel, opted out of surgery to separate the twins when they were born in 1990 because there was a chance the twins would not survive the surgery, according to the “Today” show.
“We are totally different people,” Brittany noted in “Extraordinary People: The Twins Who Share a Body.”
“We usually bargain with each other like, ‘If you do this, I’ll do that.’ Or we take turns.”
Abby and Brittany in their younger days. They are now 34. TLC“We absolutely hate when people take pictures of us,” Abby said in the documentary. “And we will throw a fit about it, and make them embarrassed.”
In the 2006 special “Joined for Life: Abby & Brittany Turn 16,” Brittany said that “the whole world doesn’t need to know who we’re dating or what we’re gonna do and everything.”
“Yeah, we’re going to be moms,” she added. “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.”
Abby’s marriage to Bowling took place on Nov. 13, 2021 and, according to The Daily Mail, Bowling has an 8-year-old daughter, Isabella, from a previous relationship.
Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel with Abby’s husband, Josh Bowling. Joshua Bowling / Facebook Abby and Brittany are elementary school teachers in Minnesota. Here they pose with Abby’s husband, Josh Bowling, and his daughter, Isabella. Joshua Bowling / FacebookAccording to the “Today” show, which obtained Abby and Josh’s marriage records, the sisters teach fifth grade in Minnesota. When they were first hired, they revealed that they were given separate teaching contracts and split their pay.
“Math and science is kind of my strong point,” Abby said on an episode of their TLC reality show. “Where Brittany is more focused on the language arts, reading — stuff like that.”
