A couple who are married and currently expecting their first child have admitted they are often mistaken for relatives, with many believing they are twins or even mother and daughter.
Whitney and Megan Bacon-Evans, from Windsor, Berkshire, have been a couple for 16 years, but with matching blonde hair and similar styles, many of those years have been filled with comments calling them siblings.
Throughout their relationship, the couple has not only been mistaken as twin sisters, but also as mother and daughter. even though Megan, 37, is just one year older than Whitney.
The couple, who share a popular social media page, recently announced their pregnancy after a long journey with three failed rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) and two rounds of IVF, totaling £40,000.
Now that Megan is 20 weeks pregnant, the longtime wives say they are still inundated with questions about their relationship.
“We are often mistaken for sisters, twins and worst of all: mother and daughter,” said Whitney, originally from Kentucky.
‘They think Megan is (my) mother. We hear it all the time, from in person to online.
‘We believe people are naturally curious because they feel a deep connection between us and want to know that connection.
Whitney (right) and Megan Bacon-Evans (left), from Windsor, Berkshire, have been a couple for 16 years, but with matching blonde hair and similar styles, many of those years have been filled with comments calling them siblings.
‘They proceed to ask those questions assuming we are not married or a couple.
‘We politely correct them and tell them that we are married and have been together for 16 years.
‘We hope that by correcting them we can educate them about lesbian couples and never take them for granted.
“It’s pretty awkward when we inform them we’re married and they respond ‘but you look identical’, we really don’t!”
The couple first connected on MySpace as teenagers in 2006 before meeting two years later, while Whitney was studying abroad in London.
Megan said: ‘As soon as we looked into each other’s 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 entered into a civil partnership.
They then ‘upgraded’ to marriage in a 2017 ceremony in California, USA.
The couple, who share a popular social media page, recently announced their pregnancy after a long journey with three failed rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) and two rounds of IVF, totaling £40,000.
Throughout their relationship, the couple have not only been mistaken as twin sisters, but also as mother and daughter, even though Megan, 37, is just one year older than Whitney.
In 2020, they decided to expand their family and have a child together, although 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 becoming two mothers, but we also didn’t really know what this would entail, due to the huge lack of representation.
‘There is a huge lack of information about how LGBTQ+ couples create their family.
“We didn’t even know where to start our journey as a baby and neither did our GP.”
It was two years before they could start IUI.
Whitney said: “We got pregnant on our first round and 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 rounds of IUI without success before turning to IVF, where the first round was unsuccessful.
Now that Megan is 20 weeks pregnant, the longtime wives say they are still inundated with questions about their relationship.
“We are often mistaken for sisters, twins, and worst of all: mother and daughter,” Whitney, originally from Kentucky, USA, told What’s The Jam.
The couple first connected on MySpace as teenagers in 2006 before meeting two years later, when Whitney was studying in London.
Megan underwent a second round of egg collection and one of the viable embryos stuck.
Whitney said: ‘We are both beyond excited. It is the most magical feeling knowing that we will be able to meet our son in May.
‘We can’t wait to be mummies and expand our family. We’ve just found out we’re having a girl, which is so exciting!’
After everything they went through to get to this point, the couple is still reeling from the toll it can take on same-sex couples to conceive.
Megan said: ‘During our baby journey, we were shocked to discover barriers and discrimination that prevented same-sex female couples from having a family.
‘This also affects single women and people with a uterus.
‘Coined as a ‘gay tax’, an unfair financial burden is being placed on the LGBTQ+ community. We self-funded our baby’s trip and spent approximately £40,000 in total.
Whitney said: ‘We are both beyond excited. It is the most magical feeling knowing that we will be able to meet our son in May.’
After everything they went through to get to this point, the couple is still reeling from the toll it can take on same-sex couples to conceive.
‘We spoke about these issues in parliament for an LGBT+ Commission research report last year.
‘In July 2022, the government published its Women’s Healthcare Strategy with one of the aims of removing additional barriers to NHS fertility treatment for same-sex female couples.
“This has not yet been implemented, but we continue to put pressure on the government and recently had a positive meeting with the Health Secretary.”