Double trouble: World’s oldest twins near 101

Ena Pugh and Lily Millward, who will be 100 years and 10 months on Wednesday, are now officially the world’s oldest twins.

Guinness World Records gave them the honor after checking their birth and marriage certificates. They take the mantle from French twins Lucienne and Raymonde Wattebled, who were born in 1912.

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“By publicizing the story of Raymonde and Lucienne, we’ve been inundated with more than a dozen new twins claiming to be older,” said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records. “It’s like buses — we waited years to find the oldest twin and then suddenly, we’re surrounded by them. Lily and Ena were the first to approach us with all the necessary evidence, so we’re pleased to welcome them into the GWR family. But I’m sure we’ve not heard the last of it.”

The twins were born on Jan. 4, 1910 in Wales, Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported. They survived eight other siblings.

Ena is the elder twin by about 10 minutes.

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“She always told me she was the oldest,” Ena told the BBC. “How she knew that I don’t know. She kicked me out.”

“She’s the oldest and she puts me in my place,” replied Lily. “She tries to anyway.”

Looking back on their childhood, Lily recalled that they each had their own friends and didn’t necessarily hang out together.

The sisters were both widowed about 20 years ago, and each has several great grandchildren.

They currently live several miles from each other in small villages in Wales. They live on their own and care for themselves, even collecting firewood to heat their houses.

"They have been very close all their lives and they are still very close now,” Lily's daughter Dianne Powell, 64, told the Daily Mail. “Each of them jumps on a bus on their own every Friday so they can go shopping together and have a chat over a cup of tea. And they ring each other almost every evening although they are both very hard of hearing — they can't really always know what the other is saying but just enjoy talking to each other."

What’s the secret to their long life?

"Laughter and having a joke with each other," Lily said.

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