Princesses Marie Louise Élisabeth and her fraternal twin, Henriette, were born in 1727 as the eldest daughters of King Louis XV of France, writes historian Catherine Curzon. Élisabeth was a true alpha, and she dutifully acquiesced to a political marriage with Prince Philip of Spain, which infuriated her (Philip was only third in line to the Spanish throne). As historian Louis Therese Latour noted in “Princesses, Ladies, and Salonnières of the Reign of Louis XV,” Élisabeth displayed a “scornful grimace” at a marriage with no prospects.

But instead of sabotaging the union, she used it as a lookout. First Frenchifying Philip, Élisabeth then created a network of allies in Spain and France to inveigle her and her husband a throne for themselves. The politcking worked: After the War of Austrian Succession left a number of Italian duchies up for grabs, the nimble Élisabeth took Parma. Along with Philip, she founded the still-living House of Bourbon-Parma in 1749 and ruled the duchy till her death in 1759.

Henriette, the most well-placed set of eyes and ears for Élisabeth at the French court, was more of a beta. Maturing into a beautiful but melancholic woman, she never married. She died in 1752 from smallpox at age 24.

Here’s a male fantasy for the ages: Yes, supermodel Gisele Bündchen does indeed have a twin sister. For that matter, she has five other sisters. Just let that sink in.

Fraternal twins Gisele and Patricia were born in 1980 in Brazil, notes Biography. Making a name for herself in the 1990s, Gisele made history in 2000 when she landed a contract with Victoria’s Secret for a jaw-dropping $25 million. Forbes.com can’t stop gushing about her: She was the 16th richest woman in the industry in 2007, the world’s top model in 2012 (and several other years), and the 89th most powerful woman in media and entertainment as of 2014. But she is not just a pretty face; she designs a line of sandals, launched a water conservation and plant recovery effort in her home country, and serves as an ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme. And she has enough acting chops to hold her own in “The Devil Wears Prada.” 

Younger (and somewhat shyer) sister Patricia is part of her sister’s success behind the scenes. TheThings reports she acts as Gisele’s manager and spokesperson and works in Intimates, Gisele’s lingerie company.

Born in the British colony of the Gold Coast in 1938 and coming of age when independence was declared and the Gold Coast became modern Ghana in 1957, the Annan twins came from one of the most aristocratic and politically connected families in the region (via Biography). Perhaps it was a political prophecy that Kofi Annan became the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations in 1997, according to the United Nations, after an established career in diplomacy with that organization. Gravely aware that his and the U.N.’s lack of action in the atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia failed both nations, The Atlantic reported Kofi changed his entire worldview and worked towards what would become the U.N. Security Council’s endorsement of the “Responsibility to Protect” in 2005. The resolution enforced three principle responsibilities of the U.N. in conflicts: to prevent, react, and rebuild.

Kofi passed away in 2018. As reported by The Hill, at his memorial it was said that his peace-making tendencies came from being a twin, due to the Ghanaian belief that twins are “naturally accommodating because they have to share a womb.” Far less politically inclined than her brother, Efua lived quietly and died in 1991, reports CNN, an event that deeply saddened Kofi. The two shared the same middle name, Atta, which in the Akan language means “twin.”

The identical twins born Pauline Esther Friedman and Esther Pauline Friedman would become the American go-to-guides for good advice. Evolving with the times, the two deftly navigated topics as ancient as love and loss to societal hot potatoes, including civil rights, women’s liberation, and LGBTQ equality.

Called “the most influential woman in the United States,” reports New York Times, Esther, aka Ann Landers, never actually went by “Ann Landers.” According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Esther took over the “Ask Ann Landers” column in the Chicago Sun Times from Ruth Crowley in 1955, becoming synonymous with the pseudonym. So much so in fact, that when Esther passed away in 2002 there were calls for the column to end. Instead, there are now two “Ann Landers” – AnnLanders.com (run by Esther’s daughter Margo Howard) and Annie’s Mailbox, run by Esther’s former editors, Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar.

Starting the year after her sister, Pauline, aka Dear Abby, did create “Abigail Van Buren,” both the column and name (a combination of the biblical Abigail and President Martin Van Buren). As reported by CNN, when Pauline died in 2013, “Dear Abby” was the most widely syndicated newspaper column on Earth, running in 1,400 newspapers and with a whopping 110 million readers. The column lives on, however; daughter Jeanne Phillips took the reins in 2000.

Elvis Presley would talk often of his identical twin Jesse who died at birth, not an uncommon tragedy in 1935, when medical technology was basic, and among the very poor, which the Presley’s were. According to an article on TheThings, by entertainment writer Hannah Wigandt, older brother Jesse was stillborn 35 minutes before Elvis came into the world. Unable to afford any of the accoutrements of a proper funeral (a coffin, cemetery plot, or proper gravestone), the family buried little Jessie in a shoebox in Priceville Memorial Gardens in Tupelo, Mississippi, under an unhewn stone marker, not far from the graves of the twins’ uncle and aunt.

For all his stage presence and public confidence, the King of Rock and Roll would, for the rest of his life, suffer a private melancholy that sources frame as a form of survivor’s guilt. In fact, there is a depression unique to twins called “twinless twin syndrome.” Some surmise The King’s drive and flouting of public decency was a delayed reaction to Jesse’s death, a way for Elvis to make it out of the external circumstances that at least contributed to the loss of his twin and fill a hole that could never be filled.

Everybody knows Heracles (also Hercules) – he’s the semi-divine hero of the Twelve Labors, paragon of the Grecian masculine ideal, and prone to inconvenient fits of murderous rage thanks to the goddess Hera who really had it in for the guy, notes Mythology Source. As for his twin, Iphicles, well, he wouldn’t be the first younger brother to be overshadowed by his elder. The poor guy didn’t even get any divine by-blow from being in close quarters with a half-god for nine months. At least Hera left him alone.

The historicity of these two is iffy at best (genealogical sources estimate they were born around 1286 B.C.), but somebody had to kick off myth. Moreover, the brothers deserve an honorable mention because they represent an unlikely form of twinning: fraternal twins by different fathers. In the story, Alcmene was “visited” by the god Zeus in the guise of her husband Amphitryon and conceived Heracles (hence the ire of Hera, as she was Zeus’ much cheated-upon wife). Some hours later, the real Amphitryon sired Iphicles. 

In reality, this is a documented biological event called heteropaternal superfecundation – the mother releases two egg cells a few days apart, just long enough for two different men to fertilize one of the ovums independently of the other.