Abby Hensel is married! Conjoined twin who rose to fame in reality show Abby & Brittany secretly tied the knot with an army veteran in 2021

• Abby Hensel, now 34, from Minnesota, reveals she tied the knot back in 2021
• READ MORE: Conjoined twins Abigail and Brittany Hensel head to London for a spot of sightseeing in the latest installment of their hit reality show 

One of America’s most famous conjoined twins has been secretly married for three years.

According to public records obtained by TODAY, Abby Hensel, now 34, from Minnesota, got married to Josh Bowling, a nurse and army veteran in 2021.

Abby and her sister Brittany are believed to be one of only a few sets of dicephalus twins in history to survive infancy and rose to fame on their eponymous TLC show which chronicled their major life events, including their high school graduation and job hunting.

The pair are conjoined at the base of the spine, and from the waist down, all their organs, including the intestine, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared.

Abby’s relationship with Josh, who is a father-of-one, has gone under the radar until now, with the twins leading a quieter life out of the spotlight in the past 10 years.

Abby Hensel, now 34, got married to nurse and former US veteran Josh Bowling back in 2021

The two, who share the TikTok account @abbyandbrittanyhensel recently posted a clip showing off Abby’s big day – and their joint Facebook account also features a picture of the happy couple.

For the ceremony, which records revealed took place back in 2021, the twins sported a sleeveless wedding dress with lace trim detailing while the groom wore a grey suit.

The pair are now both fifth grade teachers, according to TODAY.

They live in Minnesota, where they were born and raised by their parents, a nurse and a carpenter.

The girls first captivated the world in 1996 when they appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the cover of Life Magazine.

What are conjoined twins? 

Conjoined twins occur when siblings have their skin or internal organs fused together.

It affects around one in 200,000 live births.

Conjoined twins are caused by a fertilised egg beginning to split into two embryos a few weeks after conception, but the process stops before it is complete.

The most common type is twins joined at the chest or abdomen.

Separation surgery success depends on where the twins are joined.

Doctors can only tell which organs the siblings share, and therefore plan surgery, after they are born.

At least one twin survives 75 per cent of the time.

The most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker, who  were born in 1811 and travelled with PT Barnum’s circus. They were born in Siam and were known as the Siamese twins.

The Hensel girls are the rarest form of conjoined twins, the result of a single fertilised egg which failed to separate properly in the womb, resulting in dicephalic parapagus – where the twins have two heads and a single body with two arms and two legs.

They have two spines (which join at the pelvis), two hearts, two oesophagi, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders, four lungs (two of which are joined), one liver, one ribcage, a shared circulatory system and partially shared nervous systems.

From the waist down, all organs, including the intestine, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared.

While they were born with three arms, one was removed surgically.

Although Brittany – the left twin – can’t feel anything on the right side of the body and Abigail – the right twin – can’t feel anything on her left, instinctively their limbs move as if co-ordinated by one person, even when typing e-mails on the computer.

It is rare for twins conjoined the way that Abby and Brittany are to survive into adulthood, but despite this they are in good health, without heart defects or organ failure.

They then lived a quiet, normal life in Minnesota with their family, keeping away from the media spotlight until they agreed to appear on a documentary for TLC when they turned 16.

When the Hensel twins were born on March 7, 1990, in Minnesota in the United States, doctors warned their parents Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike, a carpenter and landscaper, that they were unlikely to survive the night.

But that prediction was to prove wildly wrong.

They also stunned doctors with their astonishing co-ordination while playing the piano, with Abigail taking the right-hand parts and Brittany the left.

Growing up, they enjoyed sports such as bowling, volleyball, cycling, softball and swimming.

Here is Abby as she stuns in a white floor-length gown on her wedding day

And on their 16th birthday they passed their driving test, a mind-boggling feat of teamwork with each twin using one arm to control the steering wheel.

Speaking at the time, their mother Patty, a registered nurse, conceded that could have been a problem.

‘I don’t know what would happen if they got pulled over for speeding. Would they each get a ticket or just Abby because it’s her foot on the accelerator?’

Yet parents Patty and Mike never once considered having the twins separated, because of the risk both might die or be left with such severe disabilities their quality of life would be compromised.

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