Genetics fascinated people, and we all have seen so many unique traits passed down from generation to generation. 2 extraordinary people became famous due to their unique familial genes. They are Hayleigh and Lauren Durrant, and they are fraternal twins, which means they don’t look the same at all.Whenever these 2 are in public places, people are skeptical that they are related. However, once they learn that they are twins, they become fascinated and are curious about how it happened. Some people are nice and accept the situation immediately, while others are skeptics and do not believe them.
“Some people can be really rude. They’ll say, ‘You’re lying, you aren’t twins — prove it!’” Hayleigh, who has dark skin and black hair, told The Sun. She got her skin color and features from her father, Dean. Through the years, the 2 girls have been hearing words of disbelief and stunned expressions from strangers after they share their stories. However, the twins never grew weary of them.
Despite the skepticism from strangers, the twins find it funny and are ready to show identification to prove they are related. Even more so, they are twins.
“So, we’ll reel off the same address or pull our passports out. It’s nice to see the shock on people’s faces. When we went to college, it was difficult because there were lots of groups of Asian, white, and black kids,” the twins said.
The twins turned out to be some sort of celebrity due to their unique genetic story. However, they were not the only ones with the rare trait in their family. Another black and white twin were born into their family 7 years after Hayleigh and Lauren’s birth. Incidentally, they have the same unique traits as their older twin sisters.
“We were like celebrities when we were kids,” Hayleigh shared. “Everyone wanted pictures with us and would ask us how it felt to be twins but different. To us, it was normal.”
Twins Leah and Miya were born in 2009 and were also fraternal twins since they both have different complexions, the same as their older sisters. This breakthrough gave the family a path to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Leah inherited her mother’s fair skin, while Miya inherited her dad’s skin color.
Would the parents have known they would have 2 sets of twins with different skin colors 7 years apart? “The younger ones idolise the older ones and are always copying them. It’s like having two Mini-Mes,” Dean said.
The twins’ mother, Alison, loves the fact that the 2 pairs of twins do not only treat each other like sisters but also as best friends.
“They are best friends and close in every way, apart from looking different,” Alison shared. “It took me some years to understand the science of how they could appear so different.”
The Durrant family remains the only clan with 2 sets of twins with different skin colors. Although Hayleigh and Lauren are inseparable, they were in separate classes in junior high school. They began to have different interests, but they were still best friends.
“We are so the same in some ways,” Lauren said. “We say the same things at the same time and finish each other’s sentences.”
The younger twins, Leah and Miya, consider their older sisters “heroes.”
▼ Watch the video below to learn more about the story of the 2 pairs of fraternal twins: