Eddy, David and Bobby were triplets born to a teenage single mother in 1961, and their mother, who was unable to take care of the boys at the time, gave them up for adoption. They were each adopted separately, and the parents were not told that there were two more babies.

In 1980, Bobby went to university, but people were treating him weirdly. They kept saying: “Eddy! Eddy, welcome back!” and patting him on the back. When Bobby got to his dorm room there was another person in there – his roommate – and this person knew something was up. He was Eddy’s best friend, and could tell the subtle differences between the two. He took Bobby out to a telephone box and rang Eddy, then they hopped in a car and drove all the way to his house.

They spent hours asking each other questions. They sent their story to newspapers, and they got the front cover story. One day, a man called David rang Eddy’s mum, and said: “I’ve just see the story on the front page, and it feels like I’m looking at myself. I… I think that there’s a third.”

He later states that he thought she ‘almost dropped the phone’.

They went on every TV show, news programme, and even cameoed in a film with Madonna. They opened a restaurant called Triplets, and everything went well, until a journalist discovered a study that the brothers were part of. 8 sets of twins and triplets were separated at birth and studied as they grew up, in the hope of answering the question ‘nature or nurture?’. He contacted the triplets, who said they ‘remembered the men’, the men were the people studying the brothers who told their parents that it was a normal study of adopted kids.

Angry, their parents went to the adoption agency and asked why the brothers were separated and why the adoption agency didn’t tell them there were triplets. The adoption agency said they didn’t think that parents would want triplets. Bobby’s dad said: “We would’ve taken all three.” They left the agency without answers.

Sadly, all the brothers suffered from mental health issues and although Bobby and David recovered, it sadly caused Eddy to commit suicide.

For a more in-depth, interesting account of this incredible story watch the documentary Three Identical Strangers.

By Izzy, Year 7