Netflix's 'Triptych' Tells the Tale of Triplets Separated at Birth, but Is It a True Story?

There’s no argument that Netflix has kept folks entertained since its inception. As the streamer continues to grow, its roster of shows, films, and documentaries continues to span various genres ranging from dramas to thrillers.

As of late, the streaming giant has been delivering various projects in the drama thriller lane, including Triptych. The series tells the story of Becca, a forensic expert, who discovers a victim at a crime scene who happens to look just like her.

Upon intense investigation and ripping apart family secrets, Becca learns that she not only has siblings, but she’s one of a set of triplets.

That said, Triptych’s storyline has left streamers wondering if the story has some real-life truth to it. After all, there are tons of stories about children being stolen right after birth and beyond.

So, is Triptych based on a true story? Here’s everything that we know.

Welcome to another example of art imitating life. Per Aural Crave, Triptych is inspired by the real-life tale of three triplet brothers named David Kellman, Eddy Galland, and Robert Shafran, whose story came to light in the 1980s. The plot of the Netflix film is quite different than the real triplets' story, though.

The brothers, who never knew about each other while growing up, had been adopted from the Louise Wise agency. The agency later claimed it had decided to split the brothers up since it would be hard to find a family willing to adopt three children at one time. However, it would later be discovered that the triplets were part of an experimental study that the adoption agency agreed to, which studied how social contexts impacted people with identical genetics.

The brothers, who had been adopted separately, only became aware of each other after a chance meeting during their college years.

At the time, 19-year-old Robert attended Sullivan Community College in New York, per TheCinemaholic.

Interestingly, he was greeted by students who were confusing him with another student, Eddy. After the pair met, they soon discovered that they were twins.

Once the media got involved, the news spread like wildfire and got the attention of David, who also shared an uncanny resemblance with the boys. From there, the reunited twins became a reunited set of triplets.

The brothers' story was even brought to the small screen by director Tim Wardle with the documentary Three Identical Strangers in 2018.

Per TheCinemaholic, the brothers learned that their mother was a teenage girl who got pregnant on her high school prom night and decided to give the boys up for adoption.

Unfortunately, the adoption agency's controversial social experiment had deterimental effects on the triplets, with Eddy committing suicide in 1995 after struggling with mental health issues. David and Robert have also had mental health struggles as well.

Most producers and writers would agree that telling every aspect of a true story is paramount. For one, they would hope that the real-life subjects would be pleased with the project to avoid any backlash in the media.

Some shows are unable to get every last detail correct, while others may embellish some details for storyline purposes.

But in the case of Triptych, the writers took the general idea of a set of triplets who only discover each other later in life (in this case, sisters instead of brothers) and decided to center the story on a fictional crime.

Triptych is available to stream on Netflix.