Inside Tia Mowry and Twin Sister Tamera Mowry's Forever Bond

Twins share a unique bond. They're each other's other half. They have their own way of communicating that can leave outsiders wondering what they're talking about. And oftentimes they don't even have to talk!

Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry-Housley can tell you all about it.

"The only thing we can't do is feel each other's pain. If I pinch myself..." Tamera said, giving her wrist a slight pinch, on Larry King Now in 2014. "But I know what she's thinking right now," interjected Tia, who's two minutes younger. "She can't hide anything from me and vice versa."

They proceeded to spend half the interview answering in unison and finishing each other's sentences. As usual.

So when Tia remarked 10 years later—as captured in a trailer for the docuseries Tia Mowry: My Next Act—that she wished she and Tamera "were still close" so she could pick up the phone and call her "but that's just not where we're at right now," alarms went off.

As in, wait, why would she be wishing they were close? What happened?!

A source told E! News that Tia, who lives in Los Angeles while Tamera resides about 400 miles north in Napa, Calif., just meant there was literal distance between them. 

"The sisters are close," the source said, "but the quote being referenced was about their physical location."

Which is a relief, considering the world watched the Mowrys navigate adolescence on their hit 1990s sitcom Sister, Sister and they seemed to still be each other's biggest fan well into adulthood. 

"I am proud of her for living in her truth and not being afraid to do so," Tamera told E! News in 2022 after Tia filed for divorce from her husband of 14 years, Cory Hardrict, calling her slightly younger sis a "strong, strong woman."

Each a mother of two and no longer sharing a zip code, let alone a bedroom, life has of course gotten in the way of constant togetherness, but the bond they've had since day one isn't the kind that geography can mess with.

Tia and Tamera have been in the public consciousness as a charming unit for 30 years, ever since they vaulted into sitcom stardom with Sister, Sister, playing twins who were separated at birth and then adopted—"Tia Landry" by single mom Lisa (Jackée Harry) and "Tamera Campbell" by two parents (though when the show starts she's being raised by her widowed dad Ray, played by Tim Reid).

The twins, who have cited Star Search (and their failure to make it on the show as a dance act) as their motivation to entertain, moved from Texas (where they were competing in pageants and doing catalog modeling) to L.A. with their parents and younger brother Tahj Mowry, who at barely 5 years old landed a recurring role as Michelle Tanner's pal Teddy on Full House. 

About two years after their first commercial, a Chrysler ad that featured the girls jumping rope double Dutch, they were discovered by producer Irene Dreayer.

They were 15 when Sister, Sister premiered on ABC, to be picked up by the WB a year later. It was on the air for six seasons, making the twins 21 when the series ended.

"We basically grew up on that show," Tia said. 

Many a former child or teen star could say the same about whatever project won them fame at a young age. But not all of them can say that their transition from childhood—especially if they were stars of a hit prime-time show—to adulthood went as smoothly as the Mowry twins can.

They've had their personal trials and tribulations, but they somehow managed to avoid the sort of highly public scandals that have plagued actors who grew up in the spotlight and weren't quite sure what to do when it dimmed.

For starters, Tia and Tamera had each other, which basically means that they were never, psychologically speaking, alone. They had a tight family unit with mom Darlene and dad Timothy, high school sweethearts who joined the Army together and raised their four children in a religious household—wherever the house was at any given time.

Tia and Tamera were born in Germany and, due to their parents' military careers, the family lived in Hawaii and Texas twice before relocating to L.A. so the kids could pursue their dream. And the twins also remain close with their younger brothers Tahj and Tavior.

Not that being a twin was, or is, always easy.

On The Real in 2014, Tamera remembered being labeled at 16 as "the goofy, cute one," which sucked because "all I wanted to be was sexy."

She and Tia did at least have the unwitting luxury of growing up before the social media age, meaning no Instagram trolls, no online shaming at a tender age, no regretful tweets, ebbs and flows of followers and other versions of the 24/7 scrutiny that they didn't have to worry about navigating until they were grown women.

Not that being a teen in the public eye wasn't hard anyway. It's not as if anyone, no matter how non-millennial, remembers adolescence as being easy. And back then, trolls would write letters on paper and mail them.

"My sister and I used to read every fan mail because we just love our fans that much," Tamera divulged on The Real in 2016. "And we used to sign the autographs. We used to do it. It wasn't pre-made...So I can remember reading this stupid letter when this person called me ugly and said I was the 'ugly and goofy twin.' And for years, I made an agreement with that stupid statement. And I carried it around with me, you guys, for years. I thought I was ugly and I thought I was goofy."

It wasn't only Tia who objected to that train of thought.

"My amazing best friend said, 'You know what, Tamera? You are not 16 years old anymore. You do not have to listen to that insecurity in your head anymore. You do not let other people define who you are,'" Tamera continued.

"So, now, to this day, when I read negative comments are anything like that, you know what I say? I don't have to make an agreement with that. Your words and you—who I don't even know — I'm not going to give you power over who I am. I know who I am and you don't define me. I define me."

Tia also had her run-ins with bullies on social media, opening up on HuffPost Live in 2015 right after noticing that Instagram commenters were speculating that she was pregnant—which she was not. 

"I'm just enjoying life and when I want to drop the pounds I will, but right now I'm happy with who I am," said Tia, whose son Cree was 4 at the time. "Someone even wrote on my Instagram page today, 'Looks like you picked up a little weight, I hope you lose it.' And it's like, really? Why would you say that? Why do you feel the need to say that?"

In 2017, Tia opened up about how close to home that sort of online body-shaming can hit. While in her late teens and doing Sister, Sister, she started taking diet pills as a way to combat the temptation of all the candy and other junk food that greeted the young actors on set everyday.

"I didn't feel fat, but the pressure of being on television and wanting to look sexy and beautiful took over," she wrote in her 2017 cookbook Whole New You: How Real Food Transforms Your Life, for a Healthier, More Gorgeous You. "I'm not proud of it. I got skinny, true, but the pills caused my heart to race, and I knew in my gut that I was hurting myself."

Tia continued with the pills until college, she wrote, until a professor suggested she literally set fire to a bad habit. 

She wrote "Give up diet pills" on a piece of paper and threw it in a fireplace, she recalled in the book. She continued, "As I watched the paper crackle and burn, something in me released. Haven't touched diet pills since that day, and thankfully, I haven't wanted to."

Tia further revealed that she was diagnosed with endometriosis in her 20s, which also motivated her to overhaul her diet and commit to eating healthier.

She met future husband Cory in 2001 on the set of the indie movie Hollywood Horror and they got engaged on Christmas Day in 2006. They tied the knot April 20, 2008.

Cree was born in 2011 (on Sept. 20, Tia posted an old Tia & Tamera clip in which she was encouraging Tamera to sample her breast milk) and daughter Cairo arrived in 2018.

Tia cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for wanting a divorce in her October 2022 filing. Tamera may have had the inside track, but she said on TODAY that she was going to respect her sister's wish to keep her thought process to herself for the time being.

"I support her," Tamera said. "So whatever she wants, the Mowrys have her back."

Tamera, meanwhile, met now former Fox News correspondent Adam Housley in 2005 and, minus a break that lasted for about a year, they've been together ever since. They married on May 15, 2011—and Tamera later revealed that they waited until after they were married to have sex.

"But if you want to be celibate, definitely don't live together because that makes it harder for you," she told Ebony with a laugh in 2012. "Have people around you to keep you accountable! Surround yourself with people who support your decision, because they're only going to root you on."

Son Aiden was born in 2012, followed by daughter Ariah in 2015.

While the trolls no longer wrote letters, some did pop up on social media to share takes about Tamera having married a white man. "Now I laugh at it, 'cause honestly it's their issue, not mine," she told Larry King in 2014. (Incidentally, the Mowrys' dad is white and their mom is Black.)

But the commentary never got much kinder.

"When we first came out publicly as a couple 12 years ago, I remember a few negative comments, such as 'never expected her to be with him!'" Tamera said on The Real in 2017. "But I never expected it to reach this degree of criticism as I got older." 

She continued, "I think the criticism is even worse now, with the racial tension that we're seeing and the political climate. But my husband, who is so great, said, ‘You know what, Tamera? This is just teaching you to focus on the thousands of people that are for you, as opposed to the very few people who are against you.' He's right.'"

And it does seem that, for the past three decades, way more people have been for Tia and Tamera rather than against them.

They took a break from acting to get bachelor degrees in psychology from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., but also continued to work together in cable movie fare such as Twitches, Twitches Too and Seventeen Again. Going to separate sets, Tamera played a doctor on the Lifetime drama Strong Medicine while Tia scored The Game, playing a medical student who temporarily gives up her dream to move cross-country with her football player boyfriend. She then starred on the TV Land sitcom Instant Mom. 

For several years they joined forces once again for the reality show Tia & Tamera, after which Tamera was a cohost of The Real from 2013 to 2020 and Tia cranked out TV and film, including Christmas movies such as 2018's A Gingerbread Romance.

Both sisters are purveyors of food and lifestyle content, and Tia has been dishing out life hacks on her YouTube channel, Tia Mowry's Quick Fix, while Tamera opened Barnhouse Napa Brews with her husband down the street from his family's winery, Century Oak.

Marking her 13th wedding anniversary with Adam in May, Tamera looked to capture the real, writing, "It's gone by fast actually. I always say, ‘You're gonna have your ups and downs.' Our marriage is not perfect, but I still like him. I like who he is as a human being. And we're actually growing together instead of apart."

More recently, ahead of the Oct. 4 premiere of her WEtv series Tia Mowry: My Next Act, the star was in Jamaica regrouping—"Walking into this new season of life," she wrote on Instagram, "I'm embracing the importance of recharging and finding peace"—and gave a candid update on her single life.

"This is JOY," she posted Sept. 8. "Celibacy. No makeup. Eating well. Meditating. Prayer. Drinking water. Minding my business. Sleeping well. Reading books. Boundaries up. Finding my tribe. Curls poppin thanks to [her own hair care line, 4U By Tia]."

Tamera concurred that Tia is just "living her life right now, and Tia is doing Tia," telling Entertainment Tonight on a recent red carpet that she hadn't been asked to be on the new show.

"No, she's like, 'This is my story,'" Tamera explained, "and, you know, I can only respect that."

And it's not as if Tia has to explain herself. Because if anyone is going to understand, it's Tamera.

(Originally published May 7, 2018, at 1:51 p.m. PT)