There’s noting gene-eric about the Durrant family. In fact, they’re one in a million!
Back in 2001, Dean Durrant, who is West Indian in heritage and has dark skin and hair, welcomed a pair of fraternal twins with his wife, Alison Spooner, who has pale skin and hair. Hayleigh and Lauren were born early, but that wasn’t the only surprise!
In a rare genetic twist of fate, Hayleigh was born with dark skin and hair, like her dad, while Lauren had lighter skin and hair. The two babies from Fleet, England instantly made history, as the odds of this happening are about 1 in 500,000 births.
That’s where things get even crazier. Seven years later, Alison gave birth to another set of fraternal twins, and their complexions were strikingly similar to their big sisters’!
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Miya has darker skin than Leah, making the Durrants the only family in the world to have a documented case of two sets of fraternal twins born with different completely different skin tones. They’re even in the Guinness Book of World Records because the phenomenon is so rare there aren’t even statistics for it.
“Even non-identical twins aren’t that common,” explained Dr. Sarah Jarvis of Britain’s Royal College of General Practitioners. “Non-identical twins from mixed parents, of different races, less common still. To have two eggs fertilized and come out different colors, less common still. So, to have it happen twice must be one in millions.”
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Hayleigh and Lauren grew up incredibly close, in spite of their differences in appearance. On their 18th birthday, they gave their first interview to The Sun to describe what it was like growing up representing this genetic anomaly.
“No one could believe it,” said Hayleigh. “People look at us like it’s some kind of miracle. I’m still amazed that we are twins.”
“They are best friends and close in every way, apart from looking different,” added mom, Alison. “It took me some years to understand the science of how they could appear so different.”
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The girls said they grew up feeling “like celebrities” and were often asked to pose for pictures with people. Their school even had a photo of Hayleigh and Lauren hanging in the biology classroom!
Leah and Miya have grown up to resemble each other more and more, but they still look up to their older siblings and are “always copying them,” according to mom. “It’s like having two Mini-Mes,” she said.
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Aren’t genetics amazing? You just never know how genes will combine, and you just might get a spot in the world record book!
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