She had grown up as an only child, always feeling like something was missing. A random YouTube clip and a Facebook message later, she discovered she had an identical twin who had been living in America her whole life, just waiting to be found.
In late 2012, a 25 year old French fashion student named Anaïs Bordier was living in London when a friend sent her a screenshot from a YouTube video. The image showed a young American actress, and Anaïs immediately thought someone had posted a video of her online without permission.
She looked closer and realized the woman was not her, but the resemblance was uncanny. Anaïs let it go at first, but a month later, her friend spotted the same actress in a movie trailer. This time, Anaïs dug deeper.
She learned the actress’s name was Samantha Futerman, and she discovered something that stopped her cold. They shared the same birthday, November 19, 1987. They were both adopted from South Korea. They were both born in the same port city of Busan.
Anaïs knew the odds of all those details matching were almost impossible. She immediately thought of the movie The Parent Trap, about twins separated at birth who reunite as teenagers. On February 21, 2013, she sent Samantha a Facebook message that read: “I don’t want to be too Lindsay Lohan, well… but… how to put it… I was wondering where you were born?”
Samantha, who was raised in Verona, New Jersey, was getting her nails done when she saw the message. She looked at Anaïs’s profile photo and thought it was an old headshot of herself. Her parents worried she was being catfished, but Samantha could not ignore the feeling that this might be real.
The two scheduled a 90 minute Skype call that lasted three hours. They discovered that they hated cooked vegetables, feared touching shower curtains, needed 10 hours of sleep a night, and had worn their hair in the exact same styles at the exact same ages growing up.
A DNA test later confirmed what they already knew in their hearts. They were identical twins, separated as infants and adopted by families on opposite sides of the world without ever knowing the other existed.
Their adoption papers had listed both births as single births, and both sets of parents were angry when they learned the truth. They had been denied the chance to raise twin daughters together.
When Samantha flew to London to meet Anaïs in person in May 2013, the two stood in silence, staring at each other, unable to move. Anaïs finally walked over and poked Samantha in the forehead just to prove she was real. Then they went back to Anaïs’s apartment and took a nap side by side, as if picking up where they left off in the womb.
The sisters documented their journey in an award winning documentary called Twinsters and wrote a book together titled Separated @ Birth: A True Love Story of Twin Sisters Reunited. They also co founded the Kindred Foundation for Adoption to help other adoptees searching for their families.
They still text each other constantly, showing up with the same nail polish colors and getting their hair cut on the same days without planning it. What the adoption system tore apart, YouTube and Facebook brought back together.
Where are they Today
Following their initial, emotional three-hour Skype call, the two women decided to record their entire journey.
- The DNA Confirmation: In May 2013, they met in person for the first time. A DNA test conducted by renowned twin expert Dr. Nancy Segal officially confirmed they were identical twins.
- Twinsters Documentary: Samantha (who worked in film) and her friend Ryan Miyamoto turned their experience into a globally acclaimed 2015 documentary titled Twinsters. They also co-authored a book about their experience called Separated @ Birth.
- Their Life Today: Despite growing up on completely different continents, the twins share an unbreakable bond, the exact same laugh, and matching mannerisms. They regularly visit each other between France and Los Angeles, travel back to South Korea together to connect with their roots, and actively use their platform to advocate for international adoption communities.
