The likelihood of it occurring is 20,000 to 1. However, one family defied the odds and welcomed twins into their family for the third time. To the surprise of their parents Derek and Ashley Whitton, both 30 years old, Ethan and Eilidh were born last Wednesday. Brogan and Robyn, Whitton’s twin sisters, are both 21 years old and both from Dundee, Scotland. Her mother, 52-year-old Jacqueline Glennie, also has a twin sister named Elizabeth McKenzie, making three generations total. Mrs. Whitton admitted she was surprised to learn she was also expecting twins but claimed it had been “predicted” to occur.
Just two years ago a p.sychic told her she would follow the same fate as her mother and grandmother giving birth to her own two little bundles of joy. She said: ” It’s very unusual for three generations of a family to have twins and it was a complete sʜᴏᴄᴋ to us, I would never have believed it if you’d told me this a year ago. I actually went to see a psychic two years ago before I was pregnant and she said to me that I would have twins and I was just like ‘uh huh, OK’ because I don’t really believe in all that p.sychic s.tuff. When I did actually fall pregnant, at seven weeks I had quite bad morning sicknesss so my doctors sent me for an early scan. They found two heartbeats in the scan and that was the first time I found out I was having twins. We all had a good laugh about it – the psychic was right all along.”
After the scan, Whitton went straight to her mother’s house to tell her the news. She said: ” We went down to my mum’s house without telling her the news about the twins and we got the scans out and she didn’t realize at first. She said ‘oh, you’ve got two pictures here’, but we just looked at her and then it all clicked into place, she couldn’t believe it. Everyone laughed when they found out, although my grandmother actually got quite emotional.” Ethan, who weighed 5lb 5oz at birth, and 6lb 10oz Eilidh were born at Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee
Although they have settled in at home, Whitton admits they may have to find a bigger home in the near future and has already traded her small car for a larger model. She said: ” It’s been lovely having twins as they have been absolutely brilliant – they are so well behaved, I can’t believe it.
The thing I’m most looking forward to is family holidays, so we can get everyone together and in fact we’re going to be having a huge Christmas celebration at Forbes of Kingennie, just outside of Dundee. There will be 14 of us staying in a lodge on Christmas Eve and Christmas night and it’s quite simply because none of us have big enough houses to hold that number of people. However, this will cause a lot of changes in our life and we’ve already had to trade in our Fiat Punto and now we’ve got a Nissan Note, just so that we’ve got more room. But my mum’s been fantastic and my two sisters are being really good aunties.
To be honest though, the twins are behaving so well at the moment and are in a great routine. The support has been really good as everyone is taking a very active role. It might have something to do with so many twins in the family. We’re all very close.”