When sisters Hayleigh and Lauren Durrant are out in public, people often ask them to show their IDs to prove they’re twins.
Many people wouldn’t believe that the girls have the same parents because Lauren was born white, while Hayleigh is black.
It’s a rare phenomenon in itself, but seven years later, their parents were blessed with another set of girl twins—and they have the same varied coloring, too!
Hayleigh and Lauren said they never get bored of people’s stunned reactions upon learning they are twins. However, being unique can come with its own disadvantages.
“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 like her dad Dean, said in their exclusive interview with The Sun in 2019.
“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.”
Lauren, who has her mom Alison Spooner’s fair hair and green eyes, said that people often assume that they are best friends instead of sisters.
Doctors were amazed when the pair were born in early 2001 looking so different, as the odds of this phenomenon is just one in 500,000.
Years later, the family found their way into the Guinness World Records book when their younger twin sisters, Leah and Miya, were born in 2009 with different complexions.
“We were like celebrities when we were kids,” Hayleigh said. “Everyone wanted pictures with us and would ask us how it felt to be twins but different. To us it was normal.”
Leah got her mom’s skin, while Miya has her father’s complexion. Unlike their older sisters, the young ones have grown to look more alike.
“The younger ones idolise the older ones and are always copying them. It’s like having two Mini-Mes,” said Dean, who works as a paver.
They remain the world’s only two sets of twins with the same parents but different skin tones.
“They are best friends and close in every way, apart from looking different,” said Alison, an office manager. “It took me some years to understand the science of how they could appear so different.”
Alison remembers an encounter she had while they were at the doctor’s. A lady told her she assumed that one of the children was hers and that the other was her friend.
Hayleigh and Lauren were never really bullied, but some kids at school used to ask why one of them is “milk chocolate” and the other “white chocolate.”
But the girls didn’t let those nasty questions bring them down. Instead, they would say: “It doesn’t matter, we’re sisters and best friends.”
The older twins have always been inseparable. At primary school, they wanted to be with each other all the time. They would also share toys, clothes, and even the same interest in TV and books.
Hayleigh and Lauren were separated into different classes at secondary school, but they made sure they were never apart outside of school.
This separation resulted in them now having varying interests. At the time of their interview with The Sun, Hayleigh was studying drama and theater studies and sociology in college, while Lauren was taking up art and business studies.
“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.”
Leah, who shares the same bedroom with Miya, said their older sisters are her “heroes.”
“I like my older sisters. We want to be like them when we get grown up,” she said.
Miya described Hayleigh and Lauren as the “best.”
“They teach me that it’s the best thing in the world to have a twin sister, even if you are not identical,” she said.
Twins really have an extraordinary bond, and Leah, Miya, Hayleigh, and Lauren are no exception! Learn more about this incredible family in the video below.
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