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As soon as the headline-grabbing twins of The Ladies Subsequent Door, the now 35-year-olds are stepping out of the shadows and dipping their toe again into the highlight after embarking on a brand new, more healthy chapter of their lives outdoors of Hollywood.

In a brand new interview with PEOPLE, the sisters replicate on their wild rise to fame, the trauma that adopted, and the way a cross-country escape helped them discover peace, function, and their religion once more.

The Shannon Twins’ journey started in small-town Florida, the place they had been raised by their Italian grandmother (“Nonna”) after a rocky childhood. “We got here from a small, poor Italian household,” Kristina explains, including that the sisters don’t affiliate with their mother and father “to this present day.”

By 16, they had been working at Ker’s WingHouse — a Hooters-style restaurant — the place they turned native stars, touchdown on billboards and calendars.

“That is the place our modeling profession actually began. We labored odd jobs till we had been 16, after we began working there,” Karissa shares, with Kristina calling it their first “centerfold.”

Playboy caught wind of the twins quickly after, when a photographer that they had been working with despatched their photos to the publication.

“The calendar man who was capturing all of the Ker’s WingHouse calendars, that photographer was additionally submitting images to Playboy. We had been 17,” Karissa says.

The response was fairly on the spot, with Kristina claiming that Playboy head, Hugh Hefner, was “dying over the images.”

“They mentioned, ‘He loves you ladies. You guys are in,’” Karissa remembers.

Their debut made historical past, with Kristina and Karissa the youngest twins, and at the moment, the primary to get their very own month within the Playboy calendar. However behind the scenes, issues weren’t so glamorous.

“We had been actually simply youngsters. We had been all pure. We did not have faux tooth. We did not have faux boobs like the opposite ladies or faux hair. We simply walked round with pure faces over tan as a result of we had been at all times within the solar in Florida,” Kristina explains.

Bullying, jealousy, and isolation had been the norm, they mentioned, and even with the additional consideration from Hefner, the women had a tough time feeling at residence within the mansion.

“Hef would present us particular consideration in comparison with the opposite ladies,” Karissa remembers. “It made Kristina cry. Kristina actually cried and needed to go away the mansion after we had been capturing. And I instructed her, ‘These ladies are older. They know how you can play the sport higher. However we’re fairly. We’re right here. We have made it this far.’ And so we ended up staying and Kristina bought by way of it, however there was a lot bullying.”

Nonetheless, they caught it out — touchdown centerfold shoots, a task on The Ladies Subsequent Door and extra.

After three years within the Playboy orbit, the cracks began to indicate.

With Karissa noting that Playboy “left an enormous gap in each of our hearts and our spirits,” particularly after they had been stripped of faith and the household at residence that grew up with.

The dying of their Nonna and Kristina’s DUI, each in 2014, had been pivotal factors for the pair, shifting their focus to renewing their religion and discovering their means on the planet that began when each Kristina and Karissa turned sad with their our bodies and the life-style decisions they made after leaving the mansion.

“Everybody was saying we had been going by way of our ‘Anna Nicole part’,” Kristina remembers, referencing the late Playmate Anna Nicole Smith. “We gained weight. There was alcohol and drugs. We had been actually unhealthy and misplaced and, even at factors, suicidal. We had nobody. It was simply us, attempting to determine it out after dropping ourselves.”

So, they bought their magnificence salon and made the choice to go away Los Angeles. They first settled in Las Vegas earlier than determination to start out over in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the place they had been born earlier than re-locating to Florida, the place they had been raised by their grandmother.

“We did not know the place to go, so we determined to return to the place we had been born and depart L.A.,” Karissa says. “We bought the wonder salon we owned on the time, and mentioned, ‘Let’s get the hell out of right here and reside a easy life. Let’s simply begin therapeutic.’”

Again in Ann Arbor, the twins lastly slowed down.

“Being in nature desensitized us. We ended up being recognized with manic despair, ADHD, bipolar dysfunction and generalized anxiousness dysfunction. Being outdoors the town helped us decelerate,” Karissa reveals, explaining the the pair used the transfer to “to seek out out who we’re and simply be egocentric, attempt to reside usually.”

“We had been completely simply able to be egocentric for the primary time. And we had been all about God and praying always to Jesus,” she explains. “We had been actually praying and simply attempting to alter our lives. And I really feel like that is after we actually grew up.”

Shifting to an natural way of life that included natural meals, merchandise, medicine and self-care, the pair entered their “therapeutic period” which took years however modified them each for good.

“I did not suppose we might ever come out of it. However Michigan modified us,” Kristina provides. “We love being in Michigan after which going to L.A. or Vegas for work.”

After years out of the highlight, the twins say they’re lastly prepared for a return, however this time, on their very own phrases.

“We do love consideration. We love the cameras, not in a imply or narcissistic means. We’re humble, however we like to entertain,” Kristina says. “So we love actuality TV as a result of our character is type of like folks can establish with us and we’re actually actual and trustworthy.”

They’re additionally desirous about getting their actual property licenses and opening themselves as much as relationship and even the potential of motherhood.

“We actually wish to do being pregnant collectively. We wish to be housewives, we wish to get married, we wish to have kids. We wish to have huge households. Since all we’ve got is one another, we wish to have huge households. It might be so cool if we may have multiples,” Kristina says, with Karissa including they they each wish to have twins.

Together with the PEOPLE interview got here the pair’s first photoshoot of their 30s, which marked one other contemporary begin for the dual sisters.

“We had been excited as a result of that is our first time doing a photograph shoot in our 30s, as grownups with out the X-rated stuff,” Kristina says. “Individuals have not seen us since 2022. We have been in hiding since A&E Secrets and techniques of Playboy. It is like the primary time our followers are seeing us. We’re stepping again out and letting our followers know the place we’re at, what we seem like presently.”

“We’re altering our look. That is our transition in our 30s and you’ll see it. We’re simply attempting to determine it out like everyone,” Karissa provides, noting that the pair are lowering their breast implants.

Whereas the longer term continues to be unclear, the twins maintained that they are nonetheless the identical ladies they at all times had been, simply grown up.

“We’re therapeutic and listening to our internal selves and retaining God first. We reworked our psychological and now you possibly can bodily see how significantly better we’re. It begins from inside and it is all actually related,” she continues. “We’re excited to work arduous, have enjoyable and proceed defending our peace.”