The Army veteran husband of conjoined twin Abby Hensel is facing a paternity lawsuit from another woman since they married. The bombshell lawsuit was filed in October 2023, two years after medic Josh Bowling, 34, and Hensel – who documented her life as a conjoined twin with sister Brittany Hensel in a TLC reality series –secretly wed in November 2021.
The paternity suit was filed by Josh's ex-wife Annica Bowling, 33, in a Minnesota court against Joshua and another respondent, Gavin Vatnsdal. According to court records, a "genetic test report" was submitted to the file on March 7. However, the details and results of the report are yet not publicly accessible.
Twist in Love Story
According to court records, Josh and Annica tied the knot in 2010 but separated in 2019. They currently have joint custody of their 8-year-old daughter, Isabella. Josh and Annica finalized their divorce on April 23, 2020.
Later that year, Annica had another child who is referred to as "Isabella's half-sister" in court documents. It remains unclear which child's paternity is under examination in the ongoing case.
It seems plausible that the child whose paternity is currently under dispute could be Annica's daughter born after her divorce from Josh. However, due to the child's being a minor, the available court documents do not make that clear.
Josh's daughter from his previous marriage attended his wedding to Abby, sporting a bridesmaid in a floral dress and walking down the aisle with a sign that read: "Daddy... Here Comes Your Bride."
It appears that Josh, who is a father-of-one and works with hospice patients, along with the twins, likely live together.
Evidence of their shared life can be seen on Josh's Facebook page, which shows the family, including his young daughter, enjoying activities such as hiking, eating ice cream, and dressing up for Halloween.
Changing Life
The Hensel sisters, who were born and raised in Minnesota, first gained public attention when they appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 1996 to discuss their lives as dicephalus conjoined twins.
In 2012, they further shared their experiences through an eight-part reality series on TLC titled "Abby & Brittany". "People have been curious about us since we were born, for obvious reasons," the twins said in the first episode.
"But our parents never let us use that as an excuse. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted to do."
According to the Telegraph, the Hensel twins said in a documentary made when they were teenagers that they had plans to become mothers later in life. "Yeah, we are going to be mums one day, but we don't want to talk about how it's going to work yet," Abby said at the time.
The Hensel twins were born with a rare condition known as dicephalus, which involves having two heads on a single body. This condition typically includes one genital system, two, three, or four arms, two hearts, and two legs.
The Hensel twins share a bloodstream and all organs below the waist. In terms of motor control, Abby manages their right arm and leg, while Brittany manages the left side.
Their parents, Patty and Mike Hensel, opted out of separation surgery for the twins because doctors said that the operation carried a high risk, with little chance of survival for both girls, as reported by "Today."
"How could you pick between the two?" their father Mike said, during a 2001 interview with Time magazine.
