Abby and Brittany Hensel, who documented their lives in the TLC reality series “Abby & Brittany,” have a new member of the family.

Abby and Brittany Hensel, who documented their lives in the TLC reality series “Abby & Brittany,” have a new member of the family.

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel first gained national attention when they appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1996.

Now the sisters have reached a major life milestone: Abby is married.

The Hensels later starred in the feel-good TLC reality series “Abby and Brittany,” which showed them driving, traveling to Europe and even riding a moped. When the show ended after one season, Abby and Brittany had just graduated from college with degrees in education.

A lot has happened in the last decade. Abby, 34, is now married. According to public records, Abby, a teacher, and Josh Bowling, a nurse and United States Army veteran, tied the knot in 2021. The sisters also shared photos of the wedding on social media. The couple live in Minnesota, where the Hensels were born and raised.

    • Flying Squid
      18•9 months ago

      I think a better way of describing it is that the two heads have one body since they don’t share a brain, making them two people.

      • @feedum_sneedson
        1•9 months ago

        Yes, of course it is. But the reason they get media attention? It’s a person with two heads, holy shit.

        • Flying Squid
          7•9 months ago

          That’s one of the reasons they’ve tried to avoid media attention.

          They reluctantly did 8 episodes of a TLC show right after college- probably necessary to help pay for it.

          They’ve done a documentary when they were teenagers, a handful of other interviews and that’s it.

          This is from an article about the documentary:

          But as the film progresses, you see that any time the twins leave their Minnesota town, people blatantly photograph them, leaving the girls feeling “violated,” according to their mother, Patty. She gets teary in the documentary when she explains how she doesn’t want her girls to grow up like circus performers, and she hasn’t let the girls speak to the media since the movie debuted two years ago. Watch the movie now—it’s still in heavy rotation on the Discovery Health network—and you can see why they’d shun the spotlight. It’s hard to shake the creepy, voyeuristic feeling you get when you watch the girls make pottery or brush each other’s hair. The narrator explains that they are, “in nearly every sense, perfectly normal teenagers.” But we know we’re watching precisely because they’re not.

          https://web.archive.org/web/20120103004716/http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/02/minnesotas_abby.php

          And I admit, I watched and read about them because they are so unusual, but I also don’t think that gives a reason to deny their individuality.

          • @feedum_sneedson
            1•9 months ago

            All these sentiments are intended by my initial comment.

        • Flying Squid
          5•9 months ago

          What else would it be? If your brain was put in a vat but you are still alive, wouldn’t you still consider yourself a person? I know I would.

          What makes Abby and Brittany a single person rather than two individuals who happen to share body parts?

          • @[email protected]
            2•9 months ago

            What else would it be?

            Rest of the body too.

            If your brain was put in a vat but you were still alive

            Is a situation that has never existed, we have no idea whether it could exist, and it presupposes the premise while supporting that premise as a conclusion. If “you” are still alive, then the question is already answered.

            What makes Abby and Brittany a single person rather than two individuals who happen to share body parts?

            Didn’t say they were

            • Flying Squid
              4•9 months ago

              Rest of the body too.

              I see, so if you have no arms or legs, you’re not a person,

              I don’t have a gallbladder anymore. I guess I’m not a person.

              Didn’t say they were

              If you’re claiming a single body makes a single person, you are making that claim.

        • @RazorsLedge
          2•9 months ago

          Of course. Is there a different way to see it?

        • @feedum_sneedson
          1•9 months ago

          You think this is an edge case, what about the Canadian twins that are joined by the brain? That’s incredible, literally could not be any more fascinating. I am aware I’m discussing people when I say that, but it really is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen or thought about.