Three siblings were separated at birth after their parent’s messy break-up in 1999, which left twin boys under the father’s care in Belgium and the sister in the mother’s care in Netherlands. The siblings spent years trying to find one another but eventually gave up hope.
That is until 24-year-old Erik de Vries moved back to the Netherlands and saw 22-year-old Josephine’s profile on Tinder , which he swiped right. After some initial flirting and interest, Erik began to wonder if Josephine could be his long lost sister.
Mic reports that the first time that Erik swiped Josephine’s profile, he had no idea she may be his sister. In fact, he had given up on ever finding his sister by that point.
“The first time I swiped her profile I had absolutely no idea. To be honest, it hasn’t been on my mind in the past few years after Maarten, my brother, and I finished a failed search for Josephine a few years ago. In our first conversation, I was actually flirting with her, so the conversation was very superficial.”
However, after initially flirting with Josephine, Erik began to wonder if the woman could actually be his sister. Erik says that as the pair had more conversations, a few things stood out that made him think that Josephine could be his long-lost sister. Erik says he was a little shocked at first so he didn’t speak to Josephine for a few days. Finally, after his curiosity got the better of him, he decided to ask Josephine some questions to see if she really could be his sister.
After multiple exchanges about their parents bitter break-up and Josephine confiding she had lost twin brothers, the pair discovered they were siblings. A week later, the two met up in person for the first time in nearly 16 years. Erik’s twin brother Maarten says finding his sister was very special and that the three are just happy to finally be back together again.
“Erik and I obviously knew for years that we had a little sister. You obviously don’t think about her every day, but a few years ago we did undertake a vain quest to find her. It’s too crazy for words that you come into contact with each other again like this, but that also makes it very special. I am very happy that I can now still get to know my sister.”
What do you think about the long-lost siblings finally finding each other with the unlikeliest of sources, Tinder?
[Image Credit: Getty Images/ Sean Gallup]