Date swap found twins' true love

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Identical twins who found true love after secretly swapping boyfriends are both celebrating their diamond wedding anniversaries.

Hettie Beazley, 82, from Swindon, met Les Dixon when her sister Iris had a change of heart about dating him.

Iris later met her true love, Ernest Mills, when he asked Hettie on a date but Iris turned up instead.

The foursome tied the knot 60 years ago in a joint ceremony as their father could not afford separate weddings.

Iris said: "I made a date with Les and she made a date with Ern and we swapped and that got us both together."

Hettie said: "We're more in love now than ever."

Good and bad times

Hettie and Les Dixon had to wait a year to marry as Iris and Ernest Mills had only been dating for a few weeks when the first couple announced their engagement.

Iris explains: "I made a date with a boy to go to the pictures when we were 14 then I saw a boy I liked better so I asked Hettie if she would go with that date and pretend she was me and she did.

"She kept it up for two or three dates and they've been together ever since."

Being part of a large family meant the twins had to share their wedding day

A few years later Hettie found twin sister Iris her true love.

"Ern asked me out on a date to a dance but I was very fond of my Leslie so when Ern came to pick me up it was Iris he met," said Hettie.

"It was funny because when he saw Iris he didn't understand why I didn't smile at him and say hello."

The wedding was a shared celebration but Hettie had to wait for her sister's romance to catch up with hers.

"We were on holiday in Weston-super-Mare and they got engaged and when they got home they told our parents and dad said 'you can't get married separately because I can't afford it'," said Iris.

"There were eight of us in the family and I only just knew Ern so she had to wait another 12 months," Iris added.

Sixty years after the wedding at St Bartholomew's Church in Wootton Bassett the twins said the success of their marriages was going through good and bad times together with the good times coming out on top.

Hettie said: "Les always says being married to twins is a pleasure."