Twin sisters who married twins reveal their children are genetically identical brothers and cousins
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Emma Guinness
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@salyerstwins
Topics: Sex and Relationships
A pair of twin sisters who married twin brothers have revealed that their children are genetically identical cousins and brothers.
Briana and Brittany Slayers, 35, from Virginia, attempted to fall pregnant at the same time and are now parents to children, Jax and Jett, who were born three months apart.
They met their husbands at a twin convention in 2017, and after a whirlwind romance, Jett and Jeremy proposed after six months - at exactly the same time.
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As reported by WebMD, the couples' children are 'quaternary twins', which means that they are simultaneously cousins and brothers because they have identical DNA.
When the proud mums revealed that their sons are brothers and cousins on social media, commentators were shocked.
"That's so crazy! They're almost identical," one wrote.
"Wow. They look like twins" added a second.
While a third remarked: "Identical twins share the same DNA. When two sets of identical twins marry, it makes their kids genetic sibling."
"A pair of identical twins marrying identical twins is called a 'quaternary marriage. Identical twins share the exact same genetic material, egg/sperm and all (while fraternal twins are conceived from a different egg and sperm)," elaborated a fourth.
"Basically impossible for either to be charged with a crime?" joked a fifth, while a sixth pleaded: "They would be 99.9 per cent brothers. PLEASE PLEASE GET THE DNA TEST DONE AND SHOW US. I'm dying to know and see if its true [sic]."
Quaternary twins are incredibly rare, and WebMD stresses that they are still cousins, despite genetically being more like siblings.
Brittany, Jett's mum, and wife to Josh, whose twin brother Jeremy is married to Brittany's twin Briana, said: "They were born to identical twin parents less than nine months apart. Twins married to twins who both have babies at the same time."
She went on to add to NBC News that quaternary babies are so rare that there are just 300 known cases in the world.
The family are incredibly close, and Jeremy admits that he sees his nephew as more of a son.
He told Entertainment Tonight: "I feel like I'm Jett's parent and I think [Josh] feels the same way about Jax.
"We're raising the kids together so it feels like just one family unit."
As reported by the Daily Mail, the two brothers had vowed to only marry another set of twins before they met their now wives in 2017.
Jeremy said: "Me and Josh always knew we had to find our twins if we were going to get married - and we told each other that we'll never be able to unless we find a set of twins that we could fall in love with and marry.
"We got lucky enough to find them, we couldn't be happier."