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Culture

Texas Woman Takes Cue from Soap

HOME / Culture / Texas Woman Takes Cue from Soap

Culture

Texas Woman Takes Cue from Soap

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 1:35 AM ET | By Scotty Gore


alt(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — A Texas mother’s real life baby drama shares eerie similarities with a recent storyline on “One Life to Live.”

In 2002, “One Life to Live” revealed a shocking plot twist — that Natalie Balsom and Jessica Buchanan were Viki Davidson’s twin daughters separated at birth.  To make the storyline even more convoluted, DNA confirmed that both girls had been fathered by different men, and that Viki could only recall giving birth to Jessica. 

To explain this bizarre turn of events, “OLTL” revealed that Viki’s sworn enemy (cult leader) Mitch Laurence, had drugged and raped her around the same time that she had convienced a child with husband Clint Buchanan.  For the next eight months, Viki unknowingly carried fraternal twin girls. When she went into labor, a sedated Viki still did not realize that she was carrying twins.  Her physican, Dr. Balsom (wife of Roxy, supposed father of Rex), kidnapped Natalie (fathered by Clint) on Mitch’s orders, so his daugther Jessica could grow up with the wealth, power, and presitage of being a Lord and a Buchanan.  Natalie, meanwhile, was subjected to a horrible life with mother-from-hell Roxy Balsom, and did not learn of her true paternity until reaching adulthood, at which time she attempted to con her newfound family members.   

But what appeared to be an absurd soap plot has turned into a real-life tale for a Texas mother.  In June 2008, Mia Washington gave birth to a set of healthy twin boys.  For the first few months, all seemed perfectly normal for the happy family.  That is until Washington began to notice that her twin boys facial features were anything but identical. 

In an attempt to clear up her confusion, the Dallas mother had a local lab run DNA tests on both her babies, and was shocked to learn that there was only a 0.001% chance that the twins could have the same biological father. “I have twins who have different dads,” the mom told the Daily Mail. “Out of all the people in America and all the people in the world, this had to happen to me.”

But how did it happen exactly?  Turns out that Washington cheated with a man named James Harrison.  The one-night stand left the Texas mum with a permanent reminder of her adulterous ways.  Son Jordan is the son of James, while Justin, the other twin, was fathered by an as yet unidentifed male. 

Doctors say that, while it is extremely rare, incidents such as this one have been known to occur.  According to Dr. Joseph Finkelstein, a Manhattan obstetrician and gynecologist,for something such as this to happen, the indiscretion would have to occur within one to two days and that “Once the egg is released and gets fertilized, the system shuts down, so although it technically could happen, it would have to happen in two days or less.” He goes on to say that the possibility of a woman having twins without any type of medical intervention, such as fertility drugs, is about 1 in 100.  In the case of Washington, since both babies were fathered by different men, there was never a health threat. 

“It’s not a baby issue since they had different placentas,” Finkelstein explains. “The two babies are totally separate entities. Babies can have different blood types even if they have the same father.” “It’s very crazy, most people don’t believe it can happen but it really can,” Genny Thibodeaux, from the Clear Diagnostics DNA Lab, told the Mail.

The Texas mother’s husband James Washington says he plans on raising both boys as if they were his own.  Additionaly, the couple has plans of telling the kids the bizarre tale when they grow old enough to grasp the situation. And the couple will welcome baby number three into the family this fall, as Washington is pregnant again (hopefully, she has learned her lesson this go around). 

The mother tells the Daily Mail that, “Five months ago we found out that I was pregnant again and our new baby is due to arrive in the autumn.  Right now I’m fully committed to taking care of my family and making sure their needs are met. I can guarantee there’ll be no questions raised this time around.”

Dr. Finkelstein points out just how different twins can become in appearance, even if they have the same  biological father.  In the movie ‘Twins’, you have Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito,” he says. “Think about how different those two look.”

So don’t be so quick to write off seemingly impossible soap plots in the future.  It’s often been noted that art imitates life, so who knows — they just may have at least a grain of truth in them after all. 

To read the full article, click here.


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