A New Jersey court has heard how a set of non-identical female twins at the centre of a paternity case were fathered by two different men.
According to News.com.au, the discovery was made after a man – known only by the initials A.S. – brought a legal action against the twins’ mother claiming that he was not their father.
The mother in the case had previously named A.S. as the twins’ dad when filing for benefits after their birth, a claim which he strongly denied.
In a dramatic turn of events, however, DNA testing showed that he was the biological father of one of the twins.
An extremely rare occurrence, the process by which two eggs are fertilised by sperm from two different fathers is known as heteropaternal superfecundation, and it typically occurs in around 2.4% of tested twins.
Since the results were presented in court, A.S. has been ordered to pay child support for one of the twins.
