We've lived identical lives

Briana Deane and her twin sister Brittany were determined to find matching husbands...

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My twin sister Brittany and I have always done everything exactly the same. From wearing matching outfits to playing with the same friends at school and even getting the same grades, we were identical in more ways than our looks.

No wonder, as we got older, we started to envision other things in our lives as being the same too. Starting with our careers (we both became lawyers), and our first home, which we bought together in 2014.

Some things people assumed we simply would never be able to match, like our husbands, but we proved them wrong.

Growing up, Brittany and I were so in tune that I could tell what she was thinking just from a look or a smile. Most mornings we’d wake having just shared the same dream – one recurring one was a nightmare that the other one was being kidnapped – and when Brittany had appendicitis at 14, I felt a horrible sickness, a sympathy pain, in my own stomach too.

We were both intuitive girls and we loved meeting new people. The only difference was that I was five minutes older than Brittany, and so always felt a sisterly protectiveness towards her. But other than that, we were near copies of each other. While some thought it was sweet, for others it was a source of jealousy. As teenagers, Brittany and I would go through periods of bullying, where classmates mocked us and called us clones. Fortunately we had each other to confide in, but dating was difficult too because boyfriends didn’t always like our close bond – we already had another half, and they struggled to accept that. Brittany and I dreamt that one day we’d find twin brothers to date. ‘I wouldn’t get your hopes up,’ Mum would laugh.

Instant attraction