A woman gives birth to twins by two different men: one is her husband's and the other one is her lover's

by Alison Forde

August 13, 2020

A woman gives birth to twins by two different men: one is her husband's and the other one is her lover's
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Adultery, in addition to being commonly considered reprehensible, can also involve a certain amount of risk. There is not only the danger that the relationship will be discovered, but that a child will be conceived with another partner by "accident".

This eventuality is unfortunately more common than is often imagined. Another question is when nature, chance and statistics come into play to decisively complicate the situation.

via Metro UK

Pikist

Pikist

In the city of Xiamen in southeastern China, a woman gave birth to twins. So far everything was normal, were it not for the detail that each of the children had a different father. This phenomenon is called heteropaternal superfecundation.

In practice, it happens when a woman has intercourse with two different men, one the day before and one the day after ovulation. The truth came out purely by chance and also due to her husband's intuition. The latter was already harboring doubts as he realized that the two babies did not particularly resemble each other.

This is not unusual in heterozygous twins, who are not identical, and may only be as alike as common siblings. However, procedures required that the birth of the children be reported together with a certificate of maternity and paternity.

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Pikist

Pikist

The DNA test revealed that one of the two babies had no genetic link with the father. Faced with the evidence, the woman, who had previously denied everything, had to confess the extramarital affair.

The incident was reported by the director of the Fujian Zhengtai Forensic Identification Center to the Chinese newspaper the Strait Herald. The man, identified with the fictitious name of Xiaolong, had delared that he was willing to be a father only to his biological son, certainly not to that of another man.

This bizarre case is very rare. It is estimated that on average the phenomenon can occur once in every 13 thousand cases of heterozygous twins. Perhaps the percentage of infidelity is much higher, but this figure indicates the real possibility of the betrayal being discovered.

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