’90s TV Star Reveals She Had a Baby Using Her Twin Sister’s Donor Egg

Brittany Daniel, who starred on the hit ’90s series Sweet Valley High with her twin sister Cynthia Daniel, welcomed a daughter with her husband Adam Touni in October. Brittany’s egg donor was none other than Cynthia, who decided to help her sister start a family after Brittany was diagnosed with stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and told she might never have children of her own. Cynthia has three children of her own with her husband, Yellowstone star Cole Hauser.

“I saw it as such a simple gift I could give to her,” Cynthia told PEOPLE this week. “I know Brittany would do it in a split second for me. And we’ve always shared everything, so why not this?” Brittany’s daughter Hope was born on Oct. 24, 2021.

Cynthia and Brittany, both 45, starred in all four seasons of Sweet Valley High, which ended in 1997. Brittany continued acting, starring in The Game, White Chicks, Joe Dirt, and most recently Black-ish. Cynthia quit acting and became a photographer. Cynthia married Hauser in 2006, and they are parents to Ryland, 17, Colt, 13, and Steely, 8. Brittany married Touni in 2017.

Brittany’s focus changed after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. After six months of chemotherapy with Cynthia by her side, she was ready to find a partner and start a family. “I remember thinking that I had a new lease on life,” she told PEOPLE. “I was ready to find a partner and have a child.”

However, a fertility expert told Brittany she likely could not have children of her own after her intense chemotherapy. So, she asked Cynthia if she would donate her eggs. Cynthia talked it over with Hauser, and they “didn’t hesitate,” Brittany recalled. “Words cannot express how grateful I am to her.”

After Brittany married broker associate Touni in 2017, the couple went through three in vitro fertilization attempts. She thought she was destined not to have children, but she then turned to surrogacy using Cynthia’s egg. “I just let out this primal cry,” Brittany said of the moment she met Hope. “The entire room was bawling because they just all knew what we had been through.”

Due to the COVID pandemic, Cynthia could not meet her niece until December. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel at first, what emotions would come up,” Cynthia told PEOPLE. “But I just felt like the aunt. And that is really special.”

Brittany told the magazine she is considering having another child using another embryo created with Cynthia’s egg. In the meantime, she is making plans for Hope to meet her cousins and enjoy the beauty of motherhood.