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Facebook unites French twins after 22 years apart

Joshua Melvin
Joshua Melvin - [email protected]
Facebook unites French twins after 22 years apart

A recent chance discovery on Facebook set two young French women on a path to meet almost 22 years after they were separated at birth. Both Siam and Fabienne had both long suspected they had a twin sister somewhere and it turns out they were right.

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Who are Siam and Fabienne?

The pair were born in Vietnam on March 4, 1992. Until last month Siam, an aspiring restaurateur, and Fabienne, who’s studying to be a paediatric nurse, had been leading separate lives in France and had no idea they were twin sisters. Both women are 21 and had been adopted in Hanoi, Vietnam by French families when they were still infants. But in January they made an unbelievable discovery that threw the cloak off their shared past.

How did they find each other?

For a start it almost didn't happen. Siam has a friend in the south-eastern French city of Annecy whose older sister spotted a girl on Facebook who appeared to be Siam’s double, she told Europe 1 radio on Friday. So Siam decided to contact this young women named Fabienne who looked strangely like her.

Siam immediately sent a friend request on Facebook, but Fabienne ignored it.

“I saw it on my mobile. I couldn’t see really, really well and then I see this photo that looks like me,” Fabienne said referring to Siam's profile picture. “And I said to myself, oh my god, someone is trying to hack my Facebook account.”

But Siam was persistent and Fabienne, who was struck by how much they looked alive, did eventually respond. The women began exchanging messages and though they didn’t come right out and ask the other if they were twins, they did everything but that.

They compared birthdays, blood types and photos until Siam finally came forward and said, “Not to scare you, but I think we are twins.”

Fabienne looked closer at the photos of Siam on Facebook and found herself thinking, “It’s impossible. I see myself everywhere, in fact.”

How could they not know?

By this time the women harboured strong suspicions they were sisters, but there was the elephant in the room. How was it possible that they didn’t know the other existed?

It turned out the answer was simple. The doctors had hidden this fact from the girls’ adoptive families. Likely because it would have made the process of finding them new families much harder.

After the initial contact the women had been writing to and calling each other several times a day. After more talking the pair decided they should finally meet. Fabienne, who lives in south western France flew to Lyon at the end of January, 2014, where Siam lives, and there they saw each other in the flesh for the first time since birth.

“I went to pick her up at the airport, of course, and we cried and then we laughed,” Siam told Europe 1.

How are they sure they are twin sisters?

In short, they just know it.

“It feels like we have always known each other, in fact,” Siam said.

“We have the same personality, we have the same tastes,” her sister added.

Now the sisters have dived into catching up on two decades of life lived separately but with some bizarre similarities. Both women have a tiny birth mark above their lips. Both had recurring nose bleeds as girls. Both had a feeling that somewhere out there was their other half.

"When I was younger...I was questioning lots of things. I wondered where I came from, if I had a twin sister," Siam told Europe 1 radio. "I always wanted a twin sister."

How do their adoptive parents feel about the discovery?

Siam broke the news with a little joke. She sent her mother a text message and photo saying she had cut her hair. The photo was actually of Fabienne, who wears her hair short. Siam’s mother responded by saying: “No, it’s not you.”

Siam then asked, “Mama, do I by chance have a twin sister?”

Fabienne for her part, woke her parents up at 3 am to tell them the news.

“They thought I was crazy at first, then they saw the resemblance,” she said.

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