A couple have revealed that they are often mistaken for twin sisters – despite being married and expecting their first child together.
Whitney and Megan Bacon-Evans have been a couple for 16 years, but with matching blonde hair and with similar styles, many of those years have been plagued with comments calling them siblings.
Others have even mistaken them for being mother and daughter – despite 37-year-old Megan being just one year older than Whitney.
READ MORE: ‘People yell at me in the street and call me names but I love my look’
- Advertisement -
The Windsor, Berkshire-based duo recently announced their pregnancy after a lengthy journey with three unsuccessful rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI), and two rounds of IVF, totalling £40,000.
With Megan now 20 weeks pregnant, the long-time wives say they are still inundated with questions about their relationship.
“We are often mistaken as sisters, twins and the worst one of all – mother and daughter,” Whitney, originally from Kentucky, US, told What’s The Jam.
“They think Megan is [my] mother.
“We hear it all the time, from in person, to online.
- Advertisement -
“We think people are naturally curious as they sense a deep connection between us and want to know the connection.
“They proceed to ask such questions assuming we’re anything but married and a couple.
“We kindly correct them and say that we are married and have been together for 16 years.
- Advertisement -
“We hope in correcting them that we can educate them on lesbian couples and to never assume.
“It’s rather awkward when we inform them that we’re married and they reply ‘but you look identical’ – we really don’t!”
The couple first connected on MySpace as teenagers back in 2006 before meeting up two years later when Whitney studied abroad in London.
Megan said: “As soon as we locked eyes, I knew she was the one.
“Two weeks later we were officially a couple.”
They spent four years long-distance before Whitney moved to the UK in 2012, and the couple had a civil partnership.
They then “upgraded” to marriage in a 2017 ceremony in California, US.
By 2020, they decided to expand their family by having a child together – though it would be a long journey, costing them tens of thousands of pounds.
Megan said: “We were excited to finally embark on our journey to become two mums, but also didn’t really know what this would entail, due to the great lack of representation.
“There is a great lack of information as to how LGBTQ+ couples create their family.
“We didn’t know where to even start our baby journey and neither did our GP.”
It took two years before they were able to start with IUI.
Whitney said: “We got pregnant from our first round and we couldn’t believe our luck, we were so excited.
“But unfortunately it turned out to be a chemical pregnancy and a few weeks later, Megan was sadly no longer pregnant.”
They had two more unsuccessful round of IUI before turning to IVF, where the first round was unsuccessful.
Megan underwent a second round of egg collection, and one of the viable embryos stuck.
Whitney said: “We are both so beyond excited.
“It’s the most magical feeling knowing that we will be able to meet our child in May.
“We can’t wait to be mummies and expand our family.
“We’ve just found out that we’re having a girl, which is very exciting!”
After all they went through to get to this point, the couple are still reeling from the toll that it can take for same sex couples to conceive.
Megan said: “During our baby journey we were shocked to discover barriers and discrimination in place preventing same-sex female couples from having a family.
“This also impacts single women and individuals with wombs.
“Coined as a ‘gay tax’, there is an unfair financial burden that is being placed on the LGBTQ+ community.
“We self-funded our baby journey and spent roughly £40,000 in total.
“We spoke about these issues in parliament for an LGBT+ Commission Inquiry report last year.
“In July 2022, the government released their Women’s Healthcare Strategy with one of the aims being to remove the additional barriers to NHS fertility treatment for same-sex female couples.
“This still hasn’t been rolled out but we keep continuing to put pressure on the government and recently had a positive meeting with the Health Secretary.”
