A Pair Of Twins Swore They'd Only Marry Another Pair Of Twins — Now They All Share A House And Kids Together
Families come in all sorts of arrangements, and this one is definitely unique.
Instagram There are lots of different ways to make a family nowadays, but none quite so unique as two sets of twins in Virginia. Being a twin is of course a unique experience that only twins themselves can really understand. When it comes to the Salyers, twin brothers from Maryland, and the Deanes, twin sisters from Delaware, they decided to take the twin bond to a whole new level.
Two sets of twins married each other and now all make a home together with their kids.
Twins sisters Brittany and Briana Deane dreamed their whole childhoods of becoming twins who married twins. Twin brothers Josh and Jeremy Salyers felt the same way. To most of us that probably seems like an incredibly tall (and also a bit strange) order. But a chance meeting changed everything for all four of them, and their extraordinary lives together have even been chronicled for television on TLC's "Extreme Sisters."
The twin brothers swore they would never get married unless it was to a pair of twins.
"If they couldn’t find identical twin girls that matched up well with them, they were never getting married,” Brittany Deane Salyers said in 2018. "I think that they experienced a lot of the same challenges dating what we call singletons, which means non-twins. It’s hard when you’re dating someone and they don’t understand the twin bond."
That sounds like a recipe for lifelong bachelorhood, right? It pretty much was, until a day in 2017 at the annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, a yearly gathering of... well, twins who all want to converge and do twin things for a weekend, or whatever.
The brothers Salyers and the sisters Deane happened to be attending that year, met each other, and quickly hit it off—so quickly, in fact, that by the following year, they were returning to the Twins Day Festival as a foursome in order to hold their "Twice Upon a Time"-themed wedding at the event. Yes, the Deanes wore matching wedding dresses, obviously.
The two sets of twins now live together in a 'quaternary marriage' with their sons—who are genetically both siblings and cousins.
There was never any question to the foursome as far as living arrangements go—they always wanted to live together. Soon, they weren't just twins who married twins, they were twins who married twins and also live together. And also have kids together.
Well not together-together, but roughly at the same time and under the same roof. Brittany and Josh welcomed their son Jett in January 2021, while Briana and Jeremy welcomed their son Jax four months later. The two cousins are nearly as close as their parents are, and they're both attached to their aunt and uncle as well as their mom and dad. "Sometimes they both want one mom, or they’ll turn around and both want the other mom," Briana said.
It only makes sense that they're so close because since their parents are genetically identical to their siblings, Jax and Jett are, genetically speaking, siblings as well as cousins, as the doctor in the TikTok below explains.
Essentially, the extent to which Jax and Jett are genetically similar is not only the same as if they were siblings born to the same parents, but it's on par with fraternal, or non-identical twins, a phenomenon known as "quaternary twins." They're also considered "double cousins"—cousins who share the same four grandparents.
Despite the challenges a 'quaternary marriage' brings, both sets of twins call their family arrangement a dream come true.
All marriages come with difficulties, even living with one spouse can be hard enough. But the Deane and Salyers twins say they wouldn't change a thing, despite doubling their trouble, if you will.
Even with the challenges that sometimes arise—between the Salyers, between the Deanes, and between the Deanes-Salyers—the four say their arrangement is the realization of a lifelong dream, and one they often thought might not happen.
"It’s nice to take some time to remind yourself of how badly you wanted it when you were younger and how impossible it seemed at times growing up and when we were dating," Brittany said. "And now we have it. So that keeps us strong."
Even with their unique challenges though, the four say their married life is far easier than they thought it would be. "I think that you all hear that it’s a lot of work to be married, but it’s never really felt like work," Jeremy Salyers said. "It’s important to really look and see what you have and be thankful for what you do have."
But just in case you're getting any weird ideas, the foursome has cultivated separate lives in the ways that matter most. Despite being twins who married twins, "each couple has their own bedroom," Briana said in 2022. "We do like to make that clear because we get a lot of weird creepers." Okay then!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.