Husband of conjoined twins settles paternity lawsuit in dramatic fashion

Joshua Bowling has been cleared of his paternity suit by ex-wife Annica (Picture: Facebook)

The husband of famous conjoined twin Abby Hansel has finally been cleared of a paternity case involving his ex-wife’s three-year-old daughter.

Former army medic Joshua Bowling, 34, tied the knot with Abby in 2021, a year after his divorce from ex-wife Annica.

But the couple recently hit the headlines when Bowling was slapped with a lawsuit by his ex-wife last year, claiming he was the father of her young daughter.

He and Annica, who married in 2010, already share joint custody of an 8-year-old daughter, according to court documents obtained by the New York Post.

Abby secretly married husband Josh in 2021 (Picture: Facebook)

But shortly after their split Annica gave birth to another daughter, and the question of who the father is has been in contention ever since.

A tense legal battle then ensued, with both Josh and another man named Gavin Vatnsdal who was also named in the suit waiting to hear if they were the child’s father.

Following a dramatic hearing reminiscent of daytime talk shows, both men waited on tenterhooks to learn the truth… that Josh was not the father of the child.

‘It’s not Mr Bowling’s child. It’s my client’s child,’ Vatnsdal’s attorney Gregory Seamon told the court.

The pair soon became embroiled in a paternity challenge involving Bowling’s ex-wife (Picture: Facebook)

‘I think all the parties agree that Mr Vatnsdal should be the adjudicated father and Mr Bowling should be discharged and taken off the birth certificate,’ Judge Siv Mjanger ruled during Friday’s hearing.

‘I can grant that motion’.

Abby and her twin sister Brittany are no strangers to the public eye. The duo, both 34, first appeared on TV in 1996 and later starred in Abby & Brittany, a TLC reality show, in 2012. 

They are now fifth-grade teachers in their native Minnesota.

Josh and Annica share joint custody of their eight-year-old daughter (Picture: Facebook)

The sisters are dicephalus conjoined twins, which means they share a single body, with one genital system, two arms, two hearts and two legs. They also share a bloodstream and organs below the waist. 

Abby controls the right arm and leg, while Brittany controls the left. They had the option to undergo surgery to separate, but their parents opted against it due to the risk of one child not surviving.

After news of their formerly secret marriage spread like wildfire earlier this month, the twins posted a clip of themselves on TikTok alongside the caption ‘The internet is extra LOUD today,’

‘We have always been around #abbyandbrittanyhensel #happy #love #lovestory #marriage,’ they added.

Abby and Brittney previously had their own reality show on TLC (Picture: EXPOSUREPHOTOS.COM)

The pair have always shut down speculation about their private life and a decade ago, they dismissed a rumor that Brittany was engaged as a ‘dumb joke’, but even as teenagers they spoke about wanting to have children.

‘People have been curious about us since we were born, for obvious reasons,’ the twins said in the first episode of their eight-part series, according to ABC News. 

‘But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do.’

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