Brittany Daniel's dreams of becoming a mother came true with the help of her twin sister, Cynthia Daniel. After intense chemotherapy to battle stage IV non-Hodgkin's lymphoma reduced Brittany’s chances of having children, Cynthia stepped up and donated her eggs.
"I saw it as such a simple gift I could give to her," Cynthia tells People. "I know Brittany would do it in a split second for me. And we've always shared everything, so why not this?"
The 45-year-old actresses took different paths after starring in Sweet Valley High together until 2003. Brittany continued acting, starring in White Chicks and as one of the leads on BET's hit series The Game. Meanwhile, Cynthia focused on family, marrying Yellowstone star Cole Hauser, and having three children, Ryland, 17, Colt, 13 and Steely, 8.
It wasn't until after her battle with cancer in 2011 that Brittany decided that she wanted kids of her own. "I remember thinking that I had a new lease on life," she says. "I was ready to find a partner and have a child."
Brittany, who married Adam Touni in 2017, recalls the fertility specialist telling her that she wouldn’t be able to conceive a child on her own. That's when she asked her sister if she would be her egg donor. Sadly, three IVF attempts with her sister’s eggs were not successful.
"I thought I might have to wrap my head around not being a mom in this lifetime," she remembers thinking to herself. "I fought so hard to get there, and I was so scared it wasn't going to happen."
Brittany and Adam then turned to a surrogate, still using Cynthia's donor eggs. On Oct. 24, the couple welcomed their daughter, Hope Rose Touni.
"I just let out this primal cry," Brittany says about the moment her daughter was born. "The entire room was bawling because they just all knew what we had been through."
Two months later, Cynthia was finally about to meet her niece. “It was so cool to see my sister [Cynthia] with Hope for the first time,” Brittany shares. “Because I’m like, 'She’s your baby too.’ She’s very connected with both of us. She knows.”
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