CONJOINED twins Abby and Brittany Hensel proudly showed off a newborn to friends two weeks after the bombshell baby news was revealed.
The twins, 35, made headlines when it was revealed last year that Abby married US Army Veteran and nurse Josh Bowling in 2021.
Earlier this month, Abby and Brittany were spotted holding a baby carrier with a newborn inside, sparking speculation the twins had welcomed a baby with Josh.
Now, The U.S. Sun has obtained exclusive photos of Abby and Brittany showing off the new addition to friends at the Minnesota school where they work.
The conjoined twins were seen outside of the New Brighton, Minnesota school on Wednesday, August 27 after stopping by a nearby McDonald’s drive-thru for a bite to eat.
In the photos, the fifth grade teachers are wearing a purple, white and leopard-print tank top with jean shorts, black sandals and their hair down in waves.
The sisters took the newborn in the carrier out of the car and brought the baby into the school for about 30 minutes to meet their colleagues.
A co-worker joined the twins as they buckled the carrier in the car and gave them a hug goodbye.
An eyewitness told The U.S. Sun, “They looked extremely tired during the visit, but they seemed happy to see their colleagues.
“They struggled at times with the carrier.”
The twins then drove back to their $510,000 five-bedroom, four-bathroom Saint Paul, Minnesota home.
Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel reveal secrets of their lives
Over the weekend, the twins were seen making a grocery store run with Abby’s husband Josh with no baby in sight.
The baby news broke on Thursday, August 14 when the twins were seen with a newborn while running errands.
Abby, Brittany and Josh have not confirmed publicly if the child is theirs and did not respond to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
DOUBLE THE LOVE
In March 2024, it was reveled Abby had married Josh.
Josh shared photos with his wife and her sister, as the group looked happy in the snaps.
Then in June 2024, the twins posted a TiKTok from their wedding day dancing to Rolling in the Deep by Adele.
In a separate TikTok video of the twins, they wrote the caption, “We know you think you know us #sisterhoodgoals #abbyandbrittanyhensel #happy.”
In another video, an A.I. generated voice narrated, “This is a message to all the haters out there.
“If you don’t like what I do, but you watch everything that I’m doing you’re still a fan.”
Josh has a daughter from a previous marriage.
MEETING BRITTANY AND ABBY
Brittany and Abby first found fame on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 when they were six years old.
They also appeared on the cover of LIFE.
In their 2003 documentary Joined For Life, their mother, Patty, explained that her daughters had expressed interest in having children.
“That is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them,” she said.
Brittany, then 16, also said at the time, “Yeah, we’re going to be moms.
“We haven’t thought about how being moms is going to work yet.
They scored their own TLC reality show Abby & Brittany in 2012 that followed their life after graduating from college.
The show lasted just one 8-episode season.
The women graduated from Bethel University in Arden Hills, each with their own degree, before pursuing a career in teaching.
Abby once told BBC, “Obviously right away we understand that we are going to get one salary because we’re doing the job of one person.”
Brittany added, “One can be teaching and one can be monitoring and answering questions… so in that sense we can do more than one person.”
What Are Conjoined Twins?
Conjoined twins are twins that are born with their bodies physically connected.
Such twins develop after an early embryo only partially separates to create two individual fetuses and this is usually diagnosed early in pregnancy with a prenatal ultrasound.
This happens once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The majority of these are female and most are still born.
The majority of conjoined twins are connected at the chest and abdomen, but others can be connected at the head, hips, pelvis, legs, or genitalia.
Conjoined twins often share one or more of the internal organs and this impacts survival rates and the success of separation surgery.
Twins with separate sets of organs are more likely to survive than those who share.
Abby and Brittany have a rare condition known as dicephalic parapagus, where two heads are side-by-side on a single torso.
The two each have their own heart, stomach, spine, lungs and spinal cord, but share a reproductive system, liver and large intestine.
Brittany can only feel and control her right side, with Abby only able to feel and control her left.
But they instinctively move their limbs as if they were coordinated by one person.
When it comes to stomach aches, the pain is felt by the opposing twin.
They have the rarest form of conjoined twins, and were formed as the result of a single fertilized egg failing to fully separate in the womb.
