THE BETTER HALVES
One 'TLC' conjoined twin ties knot
Abby and Brittany Hensel, the conjoined twins who documented their lives in a TLC reality series, have transitioned from a duo to a trio.
Abby, the conjoined twin on their right side, married Josh Bowling, a nurse and United States Army veteran, in 2021. They live in Minnesota, where the Hensel twins were born and raised.
Abby and Brittany, 34, have been living private lives since their eight-episode show “Abby & Brittany” aired in 2012. But it’s been a happy life for them since.
According to the “Today” show, which obtained marriage records for the spouses, the sisters are both fifth-grade teachers in their home state.
All together
Abby and Josh kept their marriage under wraps from the public eye until they shared photos of the wedding ceremony on their TikTok.
A 20-second clip posted on relative Heidi Bowling’s Facebook captures the couple dancing and kissing at the wedding reception. Abby and her sister wore a white, sleeveless bridal gown with a laced back, while Bowling wore a gray suit.
Bowling is seen staring into his blushing bride’s eyes while Brittany supports her sister.
The sisters originally appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1996, explaining their lives as conjoined twins.
They were born as dicephalus conjoined twins, a rare condition when two heads are on a single body with one genital system: two, three or four arms, two hearts and two legs.
The Helsen twins share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist. Abby controls their right arm and leg and Brittany controls the left side.
When Abby and Brittany were born in 1990, their parents, Patty and Mike Hensel, opted out of separation surgery because doctors said there was a small chance the girls would survive the operation, “Today” reported.
“How could you pick between the two?” their father, Mike, said during a 2001 interview with Time magazine.
Although Abby and Brittany battle complications of life as conjoined twins, they haven’t let it slow them down from achieving benchmark goals such as passing their driver’s license test
at 16, graduating from college, traveling to Europe and becoming educators.
So far, there’s no word if they plan on expanding their family.
In the 2003 documentary “Joined for Life,” Abby and Brittany discuss the possibility of raising children one day.
“Yeah, we’re going to be moms,” Brittany said. “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.”
New family
And the couple doesn’t have to rush adding children into their life because Abby’s husband has a child from a prior relationship, according to the Daily Mail.
Bowling’s Facebook page is full of family photo shoots, ice cream outings and celebrating the holidays.