Identical Twin Sisters Marry Twin Brothers & Welcome Children Who Are Cousins But Genetically ‘Closer To Siblings’

Mar 23, 2023 by apost team

Most parents would likely be excited to hear that they are set to have twins. Naturally, there is some added stress and uncertainty about the future, but also the doubling of joy and happiness in the family. Fraternal twins are conceived when a mother releases two eggs during the same cycle. Two different sperm fertilize these eggs. Identical twins are conceived from one egg and one sperm. So, identical twins share 100% of their DNA, but fraternal twins only share 50%.

Generally, women who undergo fertility treatment have a higher chance of conceiving twins, according to Very Well Family, as well as women who have a family history of conceiving twins as multiples. There are many other factors that can determine if a woman will have twins, such as height and weight as well. 

Identical twin sisters Brittany and Briana Deane married identical twin brothers Josh and Jeremy Salyers in 2018. After sharing their lives and milestones, the sisters ended up sharing the incredible experience of pregnancy as well. The most amazing part is that their children are technically going to be siblings and not cousins because there are only two sets of DNA, even with four parents.

Both sets of twins have had a strong twin bond their whole life, so sharing this experience only brought them closer. Brittany and Briana are overjoyed that they found partners who wanted to live their lives close to their twin siblings, and they opened up about their story of meeting Josh and Jeremy. Read on to learn more about these extraordinary couples. 

This is truly the stuff of which dreams are made. Identical twin sisters Briana and Brittany Deane first met twin brothers Josh and Jeremy Salyers at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, in 2017, according to PEOPLE. The couples married in a joint ceremony in 2018, and after almost exactly two years, both couples were pregnant together!

The announcement was made with a Baywatch-themed photo on Instagram, and the caption read:

“Guess what!!?? BOTH couples are pregnant! We are thrilled and grateful to experience overlapping pregnancies and to share this news with you all!”

The twin couples also added that “Our children will not only be cousins, but full genetic siblings and quaternary multiples! Can’t wait to meet them and for them to meet each other!”

According to WebMD, the boys are quaternary twins. They do not share the same DNA. While they are cousins, they are genetically “closer to siblings born to the same parents.” However, there are still few studies found on quaternary twins, and the children would not be considered twins despite their strikingly similar makeup.

Brittany got pregnant earlier in the year when the pandemic was at its height, and when Briana accompanied her sister to one of her prenatal check-ups, she found out that she was expecting as well. In February 2022, Inside Edition reported that the sisters both welcomed two baby boys named Jett and Jax. 

The twin sisters’ doctor Kevin Walsh told Inside Edition, “For an OB doc, this is like winning the lottery. It’s really that rare.”

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For some siblings, sharing a wedding day might have been a big no-no. Still, for these identical sisters, it was "a fairytale come true." Briana told PEOPLE, "Marrying twins is something that's very important to us" For her, their wedding was a "double fairytale." 

"Even when we were little girls I can remember being in kindergarten, knowing that that is what we saw for ourselves."

Brittany added, “We knew that the chances were incredibly scarce. The stars had to align for our dreams to come true. I get to marry the man of my dreams and at the same time I get to look over next to me and see my twin sister marrying the man of her dreams.”

The fact that their husbands also wanted the same thing in their lives helped to cement their relationships into a strong bond early on in their relationship. 

“If they couldn’t find identical twin girls that matched up well with them, they were never getting married,” Brittany said. “I think that they experienced a lot of the same challenges dating what we call singletons, that means non-twins. It’s hard when you’re dating someone and they don’t understand the twin bond.”

The identical twin sisters have shared everything together throughout their lives, including clothes, major milestones, and going out together on double dates, and consider themselves “two halves of the same whole.”

Living together under the same roof and raising children together, then, was a natural next step. After their wedding, Brittany said, “We imagine it will be like two moms and two dads all raising our families together.”  

Here’s to wishing these sets of twins an incredible journey ahead! What did you think of this story? Let us know your thoughts, and be sure to let your friends know about this beautiful story as well.