As identical twins, Brittany and Cynthia Daniel were always thick as thieves.
“We are so intertwined,” says Brittany, 45, who is known – along with her twin Cynthia – for their hit 90s TV series, Sweet Valley High. “Everything that’s hers is mine and everything that’s mine is hers.”
And so as you can imagine, after Brittany fought stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and discovered she might not ever bear children, Cynthia stepped up to donate her own eggs to her sister.
On October 24, 2021 — Brittany and her husband, Adam Touni welcomed their daughter Hope.
“I saw it as such a simple gift I could give to her,” says Cynthia Daniel. “I know Brittany would do it in a split second for me. And we’ve always shared everything, so why not this?”
“I always thought I’d be the first to get married and start a family,” says Brittany. “But I was serious about my career, and I was having a good time.”
But that shifted when Brittany was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, after which she endured a grueling six months of chemotherapy with Cynthia by her side.
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“There were definitely moments where I thought, ‘Am I going to lose my sister?’ ” recalls Cynthia. “She was so strong, but it was so hard to watch.”
After her brave recovery, Brittany knew what chapter was next. “I remember thinking that I had a new lease on life,” she says. “I was ready to find a partner and have a child.”
But after she met with a fertility specialist, Brittany was informed that due to the intense chemo, she had a diminished egg reserve and getting pregnant on her own would likely be impossible. And so she brought up the idea of egg donation to Cynthia. And after her twin discussed it with Hauser, “didn’t hesitate,” she recalls. “Words cannot express how grateful I am to her.”
Brittany Daniel then met broker associate Touni six months later and they wed in 2017. But after three in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts using Cynthia’s eggs were unsuccessful — and Brittany was beyond heartbroken.
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“I thought I might have to wrap my head around not being a mom in this lifetime,” she recalls. “I fought so hard to get there, and I was so scared it wasn’t going to happen.”
But instead, the two decided on surrogacy — using Cynthia Daniel’s egg. And when Hope was born, both parents were in the room.
“I just let out this primal cry,” recalls Brittany of meeting her daughter. “The entire room was bawling because they just all knew what we had been through.”
Today, motherhood is “beautiful,” Brittany Daniel says. “It’s better than I ever thought it could be. My sister made my dreams come true.”
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