These gorgeous ladies have several things in common, including their genetics. When the Dahm triplets decided to take a DNA ancestry test, they expected identical results—but the outcome was far more complicated than any of them thought possible. This DNA discovery showed Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn something odd about their origin...
Identical Sisters
Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn Dahm were all born within an hour of one another. From the moment they entered this world, all eyes were on them. It wasn't long before the three girls were dubbed "The World's Most Beautiful Triplets." The three sisters were not only identical but totally inseparable.
Better Together
The girls were so similar that even their parents had trouble telling them apart. In an interview with Playboy, the Dahms said that right after they were born, their parents had their bottoms marked with special tattoos to help differentiate between them...
Tatted From Birth
Nicole has one small mark on her bottom, Erica has two, and Jaclyn has none. It was a tough call to make, but their parents had no other choice, unless they wanted to spend the girls' infancy mixing them up. Still, the triplets had more than just their appearance in common. This made it all the more confusing for friends and family...
Triple Threat
The girls grew up in the small town of Jordan, Minnesota, which made their identical appearance and good looks even more unique. Their little midwestern hometown had never witnessed anything like it before. In an area with only 30,000 residents, Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn stood out like a sore thumb. Soon, modeling agencies took notice of their beauty...
Three Parts of a Whole
Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn were all attached by the hip growing up. They rarely did anything without one another. "We rarely had our own identity. We were always known as 'you three' or 'the triplets,'" Nicole told Playboy during an Interview. The three shared everything—toys, clothes, and even friends, which could sometimes get complicated...
Cover Girls
The three girls were scouted by a modeling agent, who was captivated by their angelic features. At only 16, the girls made the cover of 'Teen magazine. This wasn't the only time their image was captured in print. Several years later, the Dahm triplets were photographed for Playboy...
College Girls
After high school, the Dahm sisters planned to leave modeling behind and attend college. Of course, they had no intention of leaving anyone behind. Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn completed their senior year went on to enroll in nursing school at the University of Minnesota. Soon afterward, one poster would change their lives forever...
The Path to Playboy
While walking around campus, the girls spotted a flier nailed to the wall. It was an advertisement for Playboy, boasting their "Girls of the Big Ten" special edition. The Dahm girls thought they would give it a shot and see if modeling might be a lucrative side gig. It wasn't long before Playboy reached out to the beautiful triplets.
Could They Do It?
A casting agent contacted one of the sisters. Once he learned that the Dahm girls were triplets, he was totally sold. The girls were asked if they'd like to participate in a test shoot. The sisters knew that Playboy could be their big break, but they had to ask themselves a few serious questions before embarking on a journey like this...
Taking the Opportunity
Would the Dahm girls be willing to bare it all? They weighed the pros and cons and decided to go through with it. The sisters could have never imagined that they would become the centerfold of Playboy, or how that would lead them to the DNA test that turned everything upside-down...
Taking A Leap
Before the Playboy shoot, Jaclyn, the youngest Dahm sister, said that she and her sisters "would never have [modeled for Playboy] as individuals," especially in the nude! The triplets had no idea where it would lead them in the future. Once the Playboy spread came out, it went flying off the shelves...
Playboy Started It All
"Playboy started my life," recalled Erica. "It started all three of our lives. I would never change it for the world. It created the journey that we’re still on. It’s an amazing experience that I will never give up."
In the end, the young ladies felt it was the best choice for them to drop out of nursing school at University of Minnesota. Instead, the triplets packed up and left the midwest for Los Angeles to pursue careers in the entertainment industry...
Skyrocketing to Fame
Once the triplets hit Los Angeles, there was no stopping them. Opportunities arose behind every corner. They were often cast in roles that pegged them as unattainable blonde beauties. In fact, the girls even made it onto one of the most popular sitcoms of all time...
Boy Meets World
The Dahm sisters were featured on an episode of Boy Meets World titled "The Honeymoon is Over," in which they played three gorgeous women who live in the dorm across from Eric and Jack. The girls also landed roles on Family Feud with the rest of their family and ended up taking home $10,000. One of the triplets even found love after appearing on a certain program...
Finding Her Soulmate
The girls won an episode of House Wars and were later hired on Renovate My Family, a Fox reality show that helped to improve the lives of families in need. The host of the show was none other than Jay McGraw, son of Phil McGraw—better known as Dr. Phil. Jay took an interest in the middle sister, Erica...
Love at First Sight
One day after filming, Jay knocked on the girls' trailer door and asked to watch a movie. He came in and started chatting with Erica. "He came in, and we started talking. He made some funny jokes and from then on I couldn't find it. It was love at first sight," Erica said. It turned out that Jay and Erica's relationship would soon lead the triplets down a very strange path...
Getting Medical
Jay and Erica's relationship afforded the Dahm sisters even more opportunities in the entertainment industry. Jay was an executive producer on The Doctors, a talk show featuring a panel of doctors who discussed various medical problems on television. Celebrities often made cameos on the show to offer their own opinions and contribute to the discussion. This gave Jay an idea...
Title
In 2006, Jay and Erica finally married. Jay wanted to feature Erica and her sisters on the program. Along with Nicole and Jaclyn, Jay's wife was certainly easy on the eyes. Besides that, people had plenty of questions regarding the triplets' life and general health. This led the Dahm girls to become regulars on the show. The Doctors decided to try something new with the women...
Three New Lives
The triplets' appearances helped to boost the ratings of The Doctors, proving that audiences loved watching the women together. Erica, Jaclyn, and Nicole surprised viewers everywhere when they learned that the sisters really did do everything together—including their pregnancies! The three took to the air to discuss the trials and tribulations of pregnancy and fertility...
Ready for Change
The bond between these women was truly unbreakable, and their pregnancies were only a testament to their strength as sisters. The ladies went on The Doctors to share the incredible news—they had all gone through with their first ultrasound. It was a magical moment, and it inspired the producers on The Doctors to try something new...
Was It Coincidence?
Before the producers could try out their new idea, they had to wait for the three women to give birth. Even more miraculously, their pregnancies had all been unplanned. They had no clue that they would all conceive at the same time! Jaclyn told Playboy, "It must be that triplet bond. It’s weird how fortunate and lucky we’ve all been." Soon afterward, the Dahm sisters brought new life into the world...
New Motherhood
All three of the triplets gave birth to beautiful baby girls in 2010. Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn settled into motherhood and family life. They decided to take a break from the public spotlight in order to start raising their chlidren. Everyone on The Doctors was dismayed, but Erica's husband Jay assured his fellow producers that they would get to try out their project in due time. Seven years later, their wish would finally come true...
New Idea
Years passed, and the Dahm sisters were busy raising their families. In March of 2017, Jay asked Erica about the possibility of returning to The Doctors for one last experiment. Erica wasn't opposed to going back on the show. Next, producers consulted Erica and her sisters about the idea they had in mind...
Something Different
The concept that they had come up with had never been seen on The Doctors before—and besides, it might not yield the results they were looking for. The Doctors decided to team up with Lisa Guerrero, a journalist from Inside Edition, to get the real scoop on this popular practice. They knew the Dahm sisters were the perfect candidates...
DNA Test
The Doctors wanted to test the reliability of at-home DNA ancestry testing kits. These testing kits had become increasingly popular; people wanted to know where they came from. However, the Dahm's DNA test results revealed shocking results that they never could have predicted...
Easy Access
DNA tests are easy enough to come across. Ancestry kits are sold from companies like 23andme and AncestryDNA. The Doctors thought it would be a good idea to see whether or not these tests were really up to par. Although these tests were reasonably priced, did they gather information with 100% accuracy?
Did It Really Work?
In order for the DNA testing kits to work, the customer has to send in a sample of their saliva to the company. The company will then analyze the sample, leading them to offer insight into the customer's heritage and history. It could even lead them to find long lost relatives!
Finding the Truth
Lisa Guerrero, the journalist for Insider, was particularly curious about these tests. How accurate could they really be, and could misleading results be dangerous? She and The Doctors approached the triplets. She wanted to see whether these DNA tests could correctly analyze the genetic markers of three identical people. What they ended up discovering surprised them beyond measure...
Digging Deeper
The triplets agreed to work with Lisa and everyone on The Doctors get to the bottom of things, but they never expected such surprising results. Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn were humbled to be selected for participation. They were small-town girls from Minnesota; they never believed that one magazine spread would afford them such success. The Dahm sisters were about to discover bizarre facts about their own genetics on national TV...
Fascinating Answers
Since the three sisters had always wanted be nurses before their lives took a very different turn, they were excited to learn about the science behind it all. Still, they never expected to be surprised by the results of their 23andme DNA tests. First, the Dahm triplets were about to learn whether or not they were really identical...
Were They Really Identical Triplets?
The women went on The Doctors to find out what the results of their 23andme tests had yielded. The first question seemed simple, but it would certainly lead to an identity crisis if the Dahm sisters found out that they weren't identical, after all. Were Nicole, Erica, and Jaclyn identical triplets?
Yes, But What Else?
Thankfully, the Dahms were unsurprised to learn that they were, in fact, identical triplets. After all, the three had much more in common than ordinary triplets. Their genetic makeup was so similar that Erica can open up a safe belonging to Nicole because they have identical fingerprints, meaning these ladies can trick technology! But it wasn't over—the doctors had other results waiting...
Second Test
The Dahm triplets found out that what they already suspected their whole lives, so it wasn't much of a shock to them—but the theory The Doctors wanted to test went even deeper. The sisters took yet another test to determine their heritage. All three women were identical. Wouldn't that mean their DNA was identical, too?
Confusing Results
The 23andme test was meant to provide information on where the girls' ancestors had come from. Although the ladies thought they were carbon copies of one another, they were about to be proven wrong. The test offered some strange insight into their history...
Genetic Breakdown
The results were definitely not what the women expected. Although the triplets were indeed identical, the test offered different genetic breakdowns for each of them! The test showed that 99% of their DNA was of European descent, but their countries of origin weren't the same. How was the possible?
It Didn't Add Up
The DNA test claimed that Nicole, the oldest Dahm sister, was 18% Irish and British. However, it also said that Erica was only 16% Irish and British. The doctors on the show took a closer look at the results and found even more discrepancies between the triplets' supposed ancestry...
What Was Happening?
The Dahm triplets' French and German ancestry was also questionable. Nicole was 11% French and German, but her sisters' numbers were both completely different! Jaclyn's results revealed that she was 18% French and German while Erica was 22.3% French and German. How was Erica over twice the amount of French and German as her identical sister?
It Was Feeling Fishy
The results continued to get weirder and weirder. Erica and Jaclyn both had a Scandinavian ancestry of 7.4%, but Nicole was 11.4% Scandinavian. The sisters expressed their confusion on The Doctors, and the hosts echoed their thoughts...
Shocked by the Results
Nicole told the audience, "I'm surprised, because we came from the same egg, and we have the same DNA." The Doctors host Dr. Travis Stork then explained that these types of genetic tests should be taken with a grain of salt, saying that they should be used exclusively for "entertainment" instead of actual scientific research. But that didn't explain how the tests all came back with different results...
Not Always Accurate
Inside Edition journalist Lisa Guerrero expressed that she had some reservations about the reliability of do-it-yourself genetic testing kits, but she admitted that she would use the tests herself to calculate a rough estimate regarding her genetic makeup. Both Dr. Stork and Guerrero said that they understand why these tests are so popular, but if people really want to know about themselves down to the decimal, they should look for more expensive, accurate tests.
Small Town Girls
The ladies never thought they would learn so much about themselves on The Doctors, nor did they think they would lead such interesting lives! These three sisters came a long way since their modeling days, and their circumstances have changed quite a bit over the years...
Where Are They Now?
All of the Dahm sisters got married and gave birth to daughters within weeks of one another. A few years later, they all gave birth to sons, too! Unfortunately, the women do live their lives in the public eye, meaning that certain rumors tend to fly...
Splitting Up?
Similarly to Dr. Phil and his wife Robin, Phil's son Jay and his wife Erica are often the subject of divorce rumors. Jay and Erica have been married since 2006. Their wedding was intimate and beautiful; Jay and Erica wrote their own vows and shared them in front of 400 guests. Robin was emotional afterward. "I looked at his father, and Phillip teared up, and I couldn’t hold it in. So, yeah I cried then. It’s been tears of joy the entire time."
Loving Family
Erica and Jay's kids are the same exact age as Erica's sisters' kids. Despite the rumors of divorce, this family seems happy together. It goes to show that fame might afford people more opportunities, but at the end of the day, the Dahm sisters haven't forgotten what matters most: their families.