Everyone’s favorite determiner of paternity and infidelity, Maury Povich, participated in a Reddit AMA this afternoon, so fans could ask him questions about the Maury show — which he swears is unscripted, by the way — or anything else. One self-proclaimed long-time watcher asked Maury what was the most memorable thing that has ever happened in the show’s 23-year run, and of course, being the Maury show, the answer came in the form of not just a medical oddity, but a double medical oddity.
It’s happened twice. A woman accused a guy of being the father of her twins. And when I opened the envelope – and I don’t know the answers before anybody else does – he was the father of one of the twins, but not the other.
And they were fraternal twins. And science says that’s a million-to-one shot, that there could be two fathers of twins. And it’s happened twice.
So the million-to-one shot has come in twice. And that’s the most surprised I ever was.
The medical term for this is actually called superfecundation, which occurs when two or more eggs from the same cycle are fertilized by sperm from separate acts of sexual intercourse. It’s so rare that just a few cases have ever been documented in actual medical records, which makes perfect sense that it’s now happened twice on a daytime talk show.
According to a Hollywood Life article from 2011, the most recent Maury instance was to a couple named Alejandrina and Jose in 2008, and before that to a couple named Regina and Eric. Suck on that, medical science.
One other answer I found particularly entertaining was for another Redditor who asked him where his most memorable guests come from.
Atlanta, Chicago… Texas… California…Florida, definitely Florida… but I would not say that, you know, it’s an urban draw. Because many of our guests come from small towns. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “We live in a small town, and everybody thinks she’s running around with everybody in the town!” or “Everybody thinks he’s cheating on me in our small town!”
Yep, *definitely* Florida. File that under Things That Should Come As A Surprise To No One.
