A woman’s infidelity was exposed recently when a DNA test revealed her two twins actually had different fathers.
The ‘one in a million’ case was reported by city authorities in China when the woman registered the births. She had requested a paternity test in Xiamen, so she could register them. The results, however, were far from what anyone expected.
One of the twins was her husband’s, while the other twin, remarkably, was fathered by another man.
It’s known as a ‘double pregnancy’, or ‘heteropaternal superfecundation’, in which two or more eggs released in the same cycle are fertilised by sperm from different fathers.
The woman had obviously kept her adulterous ways under wraps, with her husband believing – as you would – that both twins were his.
The father had, however, wondered why the twins did not look alike, according to the Chinese newspaper Strait Herald. As the newspaper reported, one child had different eyes, mouth and nose, and did not resemble the father in any way.
Of course, believing the children to be twins, the man had never questioned the possibility of not being the biological father to one of them.
The paternity test is a routine part of the city’s legal process, and necessary to register the babies.
However, when the anomaly was discovered, at first the woman tried to blame her husband, and accused him of tampering with the results of the test.
Eventually though, she confessed to cheating, saying she had had a one night stand with another man.
The dad reportedly said:
I obviously still want my own child, but I’m unwilling to raise someone else’s.
According to doctors, the rare case of heteropaternal superfecundation means the woman would have had to have sex with both men within a few days of each other at most.
The strange case of the twins-but-not-full-twins was made public by the Fujian Zhengtai Judicial Authentication Center in Xiamen, The Sun reports.
The director of the centre, Ms Zhang, said:
This is a very special case. It means that the woman had sexual relations with two men – and was impregnated by them at the same time.
They’re fraternal twins. A very uncommon and rare case.
Talking about the couple’s relationship after the surprisingly revelation, Zhang added that the couple have ‘sorted the matter out themselves’.
According to reproductive scientist Michael Carroll, heteropaternal superfecundation is extremely rare in humans, though it is fairly common in dogs, cats and cattle.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.