What’s it like to be sisters with a 24-year age gap?

Second marriages and the rise of IVF means the age difference between siblings has never been greater. And, as these stories reveal, it can lead to hilarity ... and confusion

WHAT do you see when you look at these photographs: loving smiles and family resemblances between mothers and their daughters?

You’d be excused for the mistake but they are all, in fact, siblings, with anywhere from 14 to 24 years between them.

Thanks to the rise of divorce and second marriages, plus IVF treatments allowing mothers to give birth later, the average age gap between siblings in Britain has risen, with parents now leaving an average of three years and eight months between their children.

But what does a huge age gap mean for a sibling relationship? Four sets of siblings reveal all.

AGE GAP: 24 YEARS

Elizabeth Dhokia, 35, is a lifestyle blogger and social media trainer who lives in birmingham with her accountant husband Raj, 30. She has a brother, alex, 33, and three sisters — Jessica, 18, Charlotte, 14, and annabelle, 11.

ELIZABETH SAYS: Annabelle is my mum’s youngest daughter, but it’s a common assumption when we’re out together that she’s mine, which is unsurprising, given the 24-year age gap.

My parents — Mum is a special educational needs consultant, and Dad is a complaints handler in the energy industry — were both 20 when they had me and they separated when I was six.

My brother, Alex, and I lived with Mum, while Dad’s work commitments meant we only saw him about once a month.

Dad remarried in 1999 and he and his wife had my sister Jessica, now 18, when I was 17.

Then, in 2002, Mum, now in her 50s, married my stepdad Sean, an architect who’s eight years younger and didn’t have children of his own.

When they told us they were expecting a baby, I was so excited. Mum took me along for her hospital consultations and I was at the 20-week scan when we found out she was having a girl.

After Charlotte was born, I spent the university summer holiday at home in Worcestershire and loved helping with night feeds and settling my baby sister to sleep. By the time Annabelle came along three years later, I was working in London and I booked the week off to look after Charlotte while Mum was in hospital.

During those early years I adored taking Annabelle out for walks in her pushchair and to cafes, where all the assistants would make comments such as: ‘Oh, is Mummy buying you hot chocolate with marshmallows today?’ Now, I love taking her shopping and to the ballet, and we play board games together. Hypothetically, I’d like to have two children of my own close together because I loved growing up with my brother, Alex, with only two years between us. It means we have lots of shared memories and ‘in’ jokes. The relationship with my sisters, though lovely, is different because I’m an adult, they’re still children and we don’t live together. Equally, I don’t think age gaps matter. What’s important is how the parents manage the family to ensure the older children feel involved with their new siblings. Mum and Sean — and my dad and his wife — have done a terrific job of that.

ANNABELLE SAYS: Elizabeth is a very cool older sister and I love spending time with her and chatting to her on social media.

She knows lots about fashion and movies and what’s trendy. My friends think she’s cool, too, especially because she has her own YouTube channel.

But I do sometimes wish that I could see Elizabeth every day instead of once a month. When we were all younger, she and Alex always came on family trips and holidays, but they’re both married now and seem a lot older than Charlotte and me.

I don’t like the idea that I might become an auntie while I’m still at school if Elizabeth or Alex have children. It wouldn’t be cool to be auntie Annabelle!

AGE GAP: 18 AND 16 YEARS

BETHANY Wing, 20, is a marketing assistant for a healthcare recruitment agency and lives in Essex with her father, Dominic, 46, a training manager, and stepmum Marie, 36, a stay-at-home mum, and their daughters, thia, four, and Molly, two. bethany also has a brother, nathan, 17.

BETHANY SAYS: There have been countless times when I’ve been playing with Thia and Molly at the park and strangers have mistaken me for their mummy because of the age gap between us.

Although I don’t mind, because I adore my little half-sisters, occasionally I get dirty looks, too, mainly from older people who assume I’m a gymslip mum with two kids under five.

My parents separated when I was four, and my brother and I then lived with our mum. As I got older

I worried that Dad might be lonely living on his own, and secretly hoped he’d remarry and have more children. He was adamant he never would, but when he met Marie all that changed. They got married in 2012 and when they told me Marie was pregnant a year later, I was excited at the prospect of having a baby sibling. That was until Dad called me after the 20-week scan to say they were having a daughter, and suddenly I felt unexpectedly sad

I’d always been his little girl and, upset at the news, I put the phone down on him. He called me straight back and reassured me that his feelings for me wouldn’t change when the baby arrived.

I moved in with him and Marie in 2016 because I didn’t get on with my mum’s partner, and although I was apprehensive, I needn’t have worried. Marie is absolutely lovely and she and Dad include me in every aspect of family life.

Living with them means they’ve got a built-in babysitter and I get to be a hands-on big sister to Thia and Molly. Dad’s delighted that we’re all so close, but he told me recently that he’s also conscious he has to devote more attention to Thia and Molly because they’re so young. But I totally understand that. Thia is like me, a performer who’s always making up songs and dances. Meanwhile, Molly is a comedian. I didn’t realise a two-year-old could be so funny! They love to come into my bedroom and watch me putting on my makeup, and I can’t wait till they’re old enough for me to take them shopping. The only downside to the huge age gaps between the three of us is that after getting up early for work all week, I’d love to have a liein at weekends. But with two toddlers in the house it’s impossible!

AGE GAP: 13 YEARS

Jasmine Carney, 24, is a nurse who lives in Cheshire with her parents Jacquie, 48, a national sales manager, and John, 50, a company mD. she has three siblings — two brothers aged 22 and 18, and little sister Jana, 11. JASMINE SAYS: Mum was buttering toast in the kitchen one day when she announced to my brother, John, and me that she was pregnant. I was 13 and he was 11 and we just laughed and said: ‘Good joke Mum!’ But I was over the moon for Mum and Dad, even more so when they found out the baby was a girl as I already had two brothers. She went into labour with Jana one night and when Dad returned home to get the rest of us ready for school the next morning, he held up a picture of Jana on his phone and I started crying with happiness. Poor Jana, I used to take her everywhere in her pram and dress her up in princess clothes, and people have often thought that she’s my daughter. One summer a few years ago, I took her to regular ballet classes while my parents were working, and when her tutor assumed I was her mum I didn’t have the heart to correct her. It’s also happened when we’ve been at horse shows and even once when the two of us were in the local Chinese takeaway and the lady behind the counter commented: ‘Aren’t you gorgeous, you look just like your mummy!’ When I moved away to go to university in Liverpool three years ago, Jana was absolutely gutted and would be glued to my side when I came home at weekends, including when I went to the loo sometimes! Now she’s getting older I feel a huge responsibility to be a good role model for her. She already confides in me about any playground dramas at school, which doesn’t cause any awkwardness with Mum and me at the moment. But maybe that will be different when she’s a teenager if she starts talking to me about boys or any attempts to go out drinking or partying.

JANA SAYS: When I was smaller I used to wish I had brothers and sisters my own age to play with.

But now I’m 11, I quite like the fact that it’s mostly Mum, Dad and me because I get all the attention!

It’s great having a much older sister, though. Jasmine teaches me so many things I can’t do yet. We love hanging out on our horses together, playing board games and having girls’ nights in, where we put face masks on and she lets me try on make-up and plait her hair.

It’s been strange while she’s been living away at university, but now she’s graduated I’m so excited to have her back home to play with.

I’ve already told her that when she gets a house, I’d like my own room so that I can stay with her all the time.

AGE GAP: 14 YEARS

Lynn schwentke, 35, is a fulltime carer for her mother, and lives in Kent with her two sons, aged 14 and three. Lynn’s sister Jaimie, 21, a chef, lives nearby.

LYNN SAYS: My sister’s birth was one of the best days of my life. My parents allowed me to go to the hospital where I watched Jaimie being born and even cut the cord.

The following day, Mum and I went shopping with her in the pram and when a lady stopped to look at the baby I told her all about the birth. She looked puzzled and said: ‘Aren’t you a bit young to be a mummy?’

But I’ve always looked older than I am and a few weeks later we were on holiday in Germany when a steward on a boat we were on mistook me for Jaimie’s mother.

After having my brother, who’s 31, and me, Mum had set her heart on having another baby when we hit our teens so that there’d be a little one at home to mother as we became more independent.

Even though I was a typical teen and into boys, clothes and pop music, I adored having a baby sister and often insisted on having her cot in my room at night.

But after Mum, who’s now 56, broke her back falling down the stairs 11 years ago, I had to take on a surrogate mother role for Jaimie, who was only ten at the time.

While Dad, a project manager, was busy working, I did the school runs, attended parents’ evenings and ferried Jaimie around to various activities.

Jaimie still lives at home with our parents and is only six years older than my elder son. They’ve grown up more as siblings than auntie and nephew.

But there have been downsides to our close relationship, not least that Jaimie has always turned to me first for advice, which upsets Mum and still puts me in an awkward position at times.

JAIMIE SAYS: I’ve always looked upon Lynn as a mother figure, partly because she’s so much older and wiser, but also because Mum was either working or ill when I was growing up. Dad was rarely around because his work took him all over the place, so Lynn was very much my ‘parent’.

She’s a tomboy who adores the countryside and staying at home with her family, whereas I’m gregarious and love clothes, makeup and going out for cocktails. But we’re incredibly close.

I remember feeling jealous after she had her first son, because suddenly all of her attention wasn’t solely on me.

But she’s my best friend, sister and mother combined, and the one I turn to with a problem, such as an argument with a boyfriend. She knows me better than anyone.