I first reported about this set of twins last October. They are now a year old and still as unique as ever!
The sisters were conceived naturally to a Jamaican-English heritage dad and a white German mom.
Marcia inherited their mother Amanda’s fair complexion, Blue-eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Millie is more obviously of mixed race with her dark complexion and dark eyes.
As the sisters celebrated their first birthday, their 39-year-old mother said: “They weren’t identical twins but they looked alike when they were born. It was only when they were a few weeks old that you started to notice the differences between them.
“Millie started getting darker skinned, much more like her dad, particularly on her legs.
“At more or less the same time, Marcia also started to develop a lighter complexion and her hair also began to get blonder and curlier.
Marcia and Millie shortly after they were born
“People have said that it’s one of those unusual things to do with the genes. It’s very rare that it happens – a one-in-a-million chance. They are both well cherished.”
She and Mr Biggs, 40, a car mechanic and panel beater from Erdington in Birmingham, have been together for ten years and conceived their long-awaited children after IVF treatment.
Michael and Amanda Biggs with twins Marcia, bottom, and Millie, top
Both come from families with a history of twins. Their own set were born by Caesarean section at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. Amanda said: “We never knew how different they were going to look. Their different appearance settled down after a few months, but it means that Millie now looks like her dad, with black hair and dark skin, and Marcia takes after me.
“But they’re also now developing their own different personality. Marcia’s the more laid-back, chilled one, and Millie’s the crafty one.”
Jane Denton, director of the Multiple Births Foundation, said: “This is an unusual case but it is difficult to say how rare. Nobody records the skin colour of every twin in the UK. It wouldn’t be politically correct to do such a thing.
“We have 10,000 twins a year in the UK and we can expect this to happen in certain situations.
“What has happened is that two separate eggs were fertilised by two separate sperm.
“The genes that go into defining skin colour will be different which results in a combination of genes.”
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I’d like to quote:
‘The Australian sisters were conceived naturally to a Jamaican-English heritage dad and a white German mom.’
This fact is in fact WRONG. The parents are both English, the father has Jamaican decent and mother English, Both Marcia and Millie are both as stated in the press story afterwards ENGLISH not Austrailian. Not to be nasty or anything, but it did amuse me as i know these people myself and found it rather odd at the random facts pointed out in that first paragraph and then to read the story lower ‘Erdington, Birmingham’ Which is in the UK.
The article has been edited…
I am not sure where the Australian part came from.
Sorry for the inaccuracy.
thay are very pretty babies…
Super cute girls! I find it interesting that people are so shocked that the girls’ skin tones are different, though. Plenty of families have children who take more after one parent than the other. If these had been single births, would people have been as shocked? Just because they are conceived at the same time, it doesn’t mean they are identical. It’s like being surprised that a mother gives birth to a boy AND a girl. BOTTOM LINE: Genetics is amazing!!