Brittany Daniel, who rose to fame in the ’90s on the teen show “Sweet Valley High” with her twin sister, Cynthia Daniel, welcomed a baby girl named Hope in October. But the 45-year-old actor never could have had her baby without help from Cynthia.
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Brittany was diagnosed with Stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011, and although she’s been cancer-free since 2014, she was told by a fertility specialist that due to the intense chemotherapy she’d undergone, she had a diminished egg reserve and getting pregnant on her own would be difficult.
So Cynthia stepped in and donated her eggs to her sister.
“I saw it as such a simple gift I could give to her,” Cynthia told People on Wednesday. “I know Brittany would do it in a split second for me. And we’ve always shared everything, so why not this?”
And though Brittany told the magazine that their lives are “so intertwined,” the sisters’ lives went in completely different directions after a four-season run on “Sweet Valley High,” which was loosely based on the popular book series by Francine Pascal.
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Brittany continued acting and got notable roles in “Joe Dirt,” “White Chicks,” “The Game” and “Skyline,” while Cynthia stopped acting and started a family with “Yellowstone” actor Cole Hauser.
But the sisters’ lives connected again when Brittany was diagnosed with cancer, and she moved into Cynthia’s home with her mother. After she beat the cancer, Brittany decided she was ready for the next phase in her life.
“I was ready to find a partner and have a child,” Brittany told People.
Brittany was able to fulfill part of that desire when she met broker associate Adam Touni and married him in 2017. But having a child proved to be much more difficult.
Brittany went through three in vitro fertilization attempts using Cynthia’s eggs before trying surrogacy — again utilizing Cynthia’s eggs.
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The surrogacy proved to be a success, and Hope was born.
“I just let out this primal cry,” Brittany said of meeting her daughter. “The entire room was bawling because they just all knew what we had been through.”
As for Cynthia, she said she had an unexpected reaction to meeting Hope for the first time.
“I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel at first, what emotions would come up,” Cynthia said, “But I just felt like the aunt. And that is really special.”
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