Two elderly women have become unexpected viral stars after they celebrated their birthday with a video shared on Tiktok which claims they are 138 years old.
The fresh-faced twins, dressed in brightly coloured clothes and jewellery, are seen laughing, joking and waving in the clip which has gone around the world on the video-sharing app.
The women's age claim has not been independently verified nor is their exact location known. If they really are 138, they would be the oldest humans ever to exist.
A woman who was believed to be the world’s oldest person died at age 128 in South Africa in March, having lived through three different centuries. Mother-of-seven Johanna Mazibuko reportedly died in her home with daughter-in-law Thandiwe Wesinyana claiming she may have died from a stroke.
Johanna's claim of being the oldest person in the world is not officially recognised, but US-born Maria Branyas Morera was named the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records in January at age 115.
Meanwhile Jeanne Calment was the oldest person to have ever lived, with her age at the time she died recorded as 122 years and 164 days old. She was born in France in February 1875 and passed away in August 1997. To date, she is still the oldest documented human ever to have lived, but her life was plagued with tragedy.
During her phenomenal lifespan, she married once - a second cousin, Fernand Nicolas Calment. The pair were together from 1896 until he passed away in 1942.
The pair had a daughter, Yvonne, in 1898 but tragically, she died at the young age of 36 after contracting the lung condition pleurisy. As she continued to age and began to attract media attention for her longevity, Jeanne was often interviewed on television.
In one interview, she said: "I have never been ill, never ever."
For the most part, her medical records backed up her remarkable claim. Apart from suffering from a few migraines and conjunctivitis as a young woman, Jeanne had never visited the doctor for a serious ailment.
In another interview with Paris Match, she cheekily said her breasts were still as firm as "two little apples." Surprisingly, she enjoyed smoking a cigarette after eating a meal and continued her habit until she was 117 years old.
Perhaps the secret to Jeanne's long life was her rigid daily routine, which began with a prayer at 6.45am. After the prayer, she would sit down for a session of morning gymnastics before eating a breakfast of coffee and rusks.
Jeanne also ate dessert and a glass of port after every meal and enjoyed chocolate, but also made herself daily fruit salads. A deeply religious woman, Jeanne went to Mass and sought help from God - and she also spent her time wondering about an afterlife.
However, after she died there were questions over her longevity, with some suggesting the real Jeanne had died in 1934 and her daughter Yvonne had assumed her mother's identity, living as Jeanne for the rest of her life - but this claim was never substantiated.
