The twins have revealed how they navigating dating while living fused together. Photo / Instagram
The twins have revealed how they navigating dating while living fused together. Photo / Instagram
This article was one of Herald Lifestyle’s best-read stories of 2023.
A set of conjoined twins have revealed the truth about their dating lives.
Speaking to Today.com, 22-year-old Mexican-born twins Lupita and Carmen Andrade addressed the common misconceptions about dating while living fused together.
“It’s not all rainbows and sunshine. We’ve had a lot of challenges, but we have a great life,” Carmen told the media outlet.
The twins - who grew up in the US city of Connecticut - share a pelvis, reproductive system, liver and bloodstream, and each have one leg, according to a New York Post report.
Despite this, Carmen, who controls the right leg, says the twins have still been able to do everyday activities like go to the movies, attend concerts, travel via plane and more recently, date.
Speaking to Today, Carmen revealed she has a boyfriend named Daniel, while her sister Lupita identifies as asexual. Noting how the sisters have never tried to have separation surgery as it could be fatal for one or both of them, Carmen said when she first began dating, she was very honest about her situation.
“I never tried to hide the fact that I’m a conjoined twin, which meant I got a lot of messages from guys with fetishes,” she said.
However, during a dating app stint in 2020, she came across her now-boyfriend Daniel, who quickly sparked Carmen’s interest as he didn’t start off their conversation by asking questions about her being a conjoined twin.
Carmen with her boyfriend Daniel and sister Lupita. Photo / Instagram
The couple has been dating for two years, and during an interview with Jubilee recently, Carmen revealed they are not sexually intimate, instead describing their bond as a “close friendship.”
Carmen also said the couple have had serious conversations about what the future holds for them. She told the news outlet that they would like to get engaged - only after they live together first, and are not interested in having children.
“I like being a dog mum,” she said, before explaining: “Lupita and I can’t get pregnant. We have endometriosis and we’re also on a hormone blocker that prevents us from menstruating.”
While the two have different views on sex and relationships, Lupita gets along “really well” with her sister’s boyfriend and is often included in decision-making when it comes to date night.
Carmen told Today, “Sometimes I feel bad because I want to spend so much time with Daniel. So we try to come up with compromises. Like, [Lupita] will choose where we go out to dinner, or what activity we’re going to do.”
The twins are very aware of how their actions can affect one another and continuously consider this as they can actually feel the other’s feelings.
Lupita explained, “I can feel when Carmen is anxious or about to cry,” adding, “It’s that same stomach drop.”
While Carmen recalled a moment when they were younger: “When we were nearly six, we had a nightmare that we were going to fall off a plane, and then we literally fell off our bed.”
“That only happened once, but we can feel the other person’s emotions. That happens all the time.”
As for other aspects of their lives, the twins have the same taste in clothing, making dressing easy, but to create individuality, they have their own unique looks created with makeup and Carmen has a septum piercing in her nose.
In terms of career paths, the sisters are both interested in the veterinary industry, while Lupita wants to be a comedy writer one day.
But for now, the two are content and never get sick of each other. Documenting their journey on TikTok, they said it’s opened their eyes to how nasty some people can be and they hope people understand the importance of realising they are humans with feelings too.
“We’ve been conjoined our whole life, so it’s not like we miss our independence,” Carmen said. “It’s all we’ve ever known, right?”
This article was originally published on April 28, 2023.
