The creator of has revealed that people frequently approach her to tell her how much the unbelievable story reminds them of their real lives.
Cat and Cathy’s wild relationship as they navigate sisterhood together has returned for a second series, as they’re joined by a third surprise sibling, Callum.
The BBC show follows two complete opposite half-sisters, who didn’t know the other existed until the death of their dad, who had lived two secret lives.
It turns out that he’d actually had a third secret life, as at the end of series 1, Cat () and Cathy (Ellie White) discover the existence of their brother Callum (Christopher Jeffers).
The second series follows Callum navigating his way into Cat and Cathy’s dynamic, and where he fits between the two opposite girls and their mums, as Cat lives a carefree life while Cathy is far more uptight.
Although their ‘strange story’ seems too wild to be true, creator Holly Walsh revealed that she often gets approached by people who say the same thing has happened to them.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk and other publications, Holly said: ‘It’s a strange story. Since the first series has gone out the amount of people who come to me and say “That happened to me,” it’s a really common thing.
‘A lot of people have really complicated stories and people who come into and out of their lives at different times, it’s really fascinating.
‘It feels a lot more of a common story than I guess you would think, it’s not exceptional this story, I think that’s whats interesting about it.’
Holly added: ‘People have told me the exact story we wrote was their life, that’s been weird.’
In fact, Christopher revealed he underwent a similar experience to Callum in finding out he had two sisters.
He shared: ‘In my life I’ve had a similar kind of experience, I found new sisters only a few years ago so I had to navigate my relationship with a new dad and with my sisters and all that kind of stuff.’
He said that the shared experience ‘helped’ with taking on Callum’s role, although, he admitted that unlike Callum, Christopher ‘hadn’t kissed one of my sisters’ before knowing who she really was.
From Holly’s perspective, she admitted realising that real people had gone through her characters’ experiences was ‘weird’.
‘It’s weird writing it from a woman’s point of view because if you have a baby you know about it as a woman,’ she said.
‘But there are plenty of men out there, I’ve got friends who have had this, who have had relationships in the past and then found out years later that they have kids.’
While Cat, Cathy, and Callum’s dad Colin never gets to share his perspective, as the secrets begin to unravel in the first episode of the show after he dies, Holly admitted how complicated his character’s position would have been.
She said: ‘I don’t think everybody who has got two families is like a sort of crazy power player, I think sometimes life is just weird.
‘What’s really interesting about this show is that it’s quite easy to be judgemental but then you get into it more and it gets more and more complicated, and more and more interesting.
‘I don’t think the guy at the heart of this story is a bad man, he just made decisions that escalated and he tried to deal with it in the way he could.’
The Other One is available to watch on BBCiPlayer.
