‘Sweet Valley High’ Stars Brittany Daniel & Cynthia Daniel Hauser on How They Got the Roles, Their Shared IVF treatment
Twin sisters Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel Hauser have shared a lot throughout their lives, including their careers — the pair had a run as the Doublemint Twins in the ’90s, appeared in the 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio film The Basketball Diaries together and, most famously, starred as identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield for four seasons on Sweet Valley High.
But, as the two recalled during the “Fabulous Ladies of the ’90s” panel at 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Florida, they also shared something far more intimate: Cynthia donated eggs to Brittany during her IVF journey.
“I went through cancer in my mid 30s, and then I tried to do IVF to retrieve eggs and I wasn’t able to,” said Brittany. “And I told my doctor I have an identical twin sister, and she is extremely fertile. And he was like, ‘What are you doing? Let’s bring her in.'”
Cynthia, who has three children with her longtime spouse, Yellowstone‘s Cole Hauser, donated eggs, which allowed Brittany to welcome a daughter in 2021. “I mean, she’s our daughter, really,” Brittany said.
“It’s so funny,” Cynthia, added, “because I have three kids. My daughter looks identical to my husband, she looks nothing like me. And then I’m like [to Brittany], I give you my egg, and you get the girl that looks like us!”
SWEET VALLEY HIGH, Brittany Daniel & Cynthia Daniel, Season 1. 1994-98. (c) Buena Vista Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
The Daniels sisters also discussed their relationships to their Sweet Valley High characters, and how they got the roles. “I was definitely more of the edgy, sassy one in real life,” said Cynthia. “But for some reason I related, I don’t know why, to Elizabeth, who was super innocent and very studious.”
She also revealed that the pair had initially auditioned for the show when they were only 13 years old; producers passed, opting for a pair of older actresses, but that pilot didn’t get picked up. “And then,” Cynthia remembered, “five years later, we got a call: ‘Would you audition for Sweet Valley High again?’ And I think at that time, we both auditioned for Jessica.
“I honestly, I don’t know what our parents did right,” she went on, “but we’ve never been super competitive against each other. Like I truly felt, when we were auditioning for the same thing, like if I don’t get it, I want her to.”
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