phenomenon called heteropaternal superfecundation<\/a>, in which a woman produces more than one egg during the same cycle, both of which are successfully fertilised by sperm from different men, with the resulting embryos surviving the pregnancy. <\/p>\nThe findings were revealed on BBC Radio 4 series The Gift, which reports that only around 20 cases have ever been identified worldwide. The Osbourne sisters are the only twins with separate fathers to be documented in the UK. <\/p>\n
Lavinia told podcast presenter Jenny Kleeman: “She was the one thing that belonged to me, the one thing that I was certain about, the one thing that I was sure of. And then she wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lavinia](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-Gift-Michelle-and-Lavinia-(credit-Emma-Lynch-BBC).jpg\")
Lavinia and Michelle discovered they are half-sisters (Emma Lynch\/BBC)<\/p>\n
Michelle, however, said she \u201cwasn\u2019t surprised\u201d by the findings. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still in amazement that this can actually happen \u2013 it\u2019s super weird, super odd, super rare \u2013 but it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specialists believe some cases may have gone undetected unless there was a reason to question paternity and take a DNA test as a result. <\/p>\n
The sisters made the discovery after a difficult childhood. They were raised by a mother who was a vulnerable 19-year-old when she gave birth in Nottingham in 1976. <\/p>\n
Michelle revealed that their mother had \u201csuffered abuse at the hands of [her] stepfather\u201d and that she had been \u201cin and out of foster care and children\u2019s homes throughout her childhood\u201d. <\/p>\n
Their mother always told them that their dad was a man called James, but the twin sisters did not meet him. <\/p>\n
When they were five, their mother left to study at university in London, and left the children with her best friend\u2019s mother who became known to the twins as \u201cGrandma\u201d. She was \u201cstrict \u2013 not very emotional, not very cuddly\u201d, Lavinia said. <\/p>\n
James returned into their lives when they were in their mid-teens, after Lavinia had tracked him down. But Michelle never felt certain that James was her father. <\/p>\n
Michelle bought a DNA test kit in late 2021, and the results arrived on 14 February 2022 \u2014 the day their mother, who was suffering from dementia, died. <\/p>\n
The test revealed James was not her father and, following weeks of investigating her backstory, Michelle discovered her father was Alex, the brother of a woman who was friends with their mother. <\/p>\n
Lavinia afterwards decided to do a DNA test, after meeting members of Alex\u2019s family and feeling a growing sense that she was not blood-related. <\/p>\n
When she discovered her twin was in fact her half-sister, Lavinia was both devastated and furious, she told the podcast. \u201cI was angry with Michelle for having me go through this, because I just didn\u2019t want this reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
She soon found out that James was not her father either \u2013 instead it was a man called Arthur, who lives in west London.<\/p>\n
Lavinia has built a relationship with her father, and they meet several times a month, often alongside Michelle. Michelle\u2019s own father Alex, who she has met, struggles with substance abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s mine, I\u2019m his, but I didn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s someone I need to take forward in my future with me,\u201d she said. \u201cI just needed to know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-933242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116505918178230586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}