FOR a quarter of a century, sisters Emma Parsons-Reid, 58, and Caroline Jones, 66, refused to talk to one another.
Here, in an eye-wateringly frank confession, they reveal what sparked their bitter feud and the tragic event that led to them kissing and making up.
From flinging bags of apples at one another’s heads, to “stealing” treasured childhood possessions and blocking each other on WhatsApp, their sibling rivalry knew no bounds.
But in December, warring sisters Emma and Caroline FINALLY buried the hatchet – although their reconciliation was laced with humour so deliciously dark, it still makes them gasp.
After decades at loggerheads, the pair finally called a truce while reunited at their 91-year-old father Vincent’s deathbed and joked, “Is he ever going to die?”
They’ve since enjoyed a pizza and opera night with their respective partners – Emma’s husband, retired chemical engineer Kevin, 64, and Caroline’s partner, retired police officer David Jones, 67.
The siblings, from Cardiff, are speaking out in the aftermath of Brooklyn Beckham’s bombshell Instagram post, in which he accused his brothers Romeo and Cruz of attacking, then blocking him on social media.
Victoria and David’s offspring are the latest in a long line of celebrity siblings to butt heads.
Earlier this month, former Towie stars Sam Faiers and Billie Shepherd were also rumoured to have fallen out, with Sam noticeably absent from Billie’s latest family holiday snaps.
Kardashian sisters Kim and Kourtney have also clashed repeatedly, with Kourtney famously branding her younger sister “a witch”, after accusing her of creating a WhatsApp group so she and her pals can bitch about her.
Then, of course, we have estranged princes William and Harry, whose relationship broke down following Megxit in 2020.
For Emma and Caroline, sibling spats are nothing new.
“I adored my sister growing up,” says mum-of-one and retired civil servant Emma. “I saw her as a mother figure and thought she was fabulous.”
Mum-of-five and former teacher Caroline adds: “I looked after her when she was little, but things got difficult when I started my own family.”
Trouble flared when Emma was 17 and Caroline, then 25, had her first baby.
Emma says: “I was used to staying with her all the time and suddenly her attention shifted from me to her child. Quite simply, I was jealous.”
Recalling the infamous “apple incident”, Caroline says: “I was an exhausted new mum and she’d done something to annoy me. I have a short temper, so I threw a bag of apples at her.”
Emma says: “She had a right tantrum. After chucking them, she put a coat on over her pyjamas – it was night time – and stormed off. She was very dramatic.”
‘We were properly fighting’
It was the start of a subtle shift in the women’s relationship which would be marked by increasing periods of tension.
A few years later came another explosive bust-up – over how to cook that 1970s kitchen staple, the Vesta curry. The pair were at their then-91-year-old grandfather’s home in Somerset when tensions boiled over – quite literally.
“We started arguing and arguing and it got very heated,” says Emma.
Caroline adds: “I pushed her, then pushed her again. We were properly fighting, hitting and pinching each other.
“It escalated to the point where our kids were getting upset and a bit frightened.”
After that, the women barely spoke for four years, dodging one another at Christmases and birthdays, and even when Emma had a daughter, now 35.
But this eventually triggered a huge fight. “My second marriage broke down in 1996 and I moved into a house that my parents owned, which would eventually be passed on to me and Caroline,” says Emma.
“I was paying rent, so I suggested I buy it off them for more than they bought it for, but below the market value. They agreed and it was settled. But Caroline was fuming.
“We fell out and didn’t speak for years after that.”
Caroline remembers: “I was devastated. Nobody told me until the deal was done. It was as much my parents’ fault as Emma’s.
“That house was willed to me and Emma and I lost it. I wanted compensation, but Dad straight out said, ‘No’. I felt like I’d been done out of it.”
Emma adds: “After that, we didn’t speak for the longest time. Caroline felt I was being favoured and was very, very hurt – but I wasn’t going to give the house up. It was my chance of independence.”
Caroline also remembers an incident involving Emma “stealing” from her in the mid-noughties.
‘I didn’t tell people I had a sister’
“My eldest daughter, Amanda, now 40, had a large doll’s house and didn’t use it anymore,” she says.
“It was in storage at our grandpa’s house and Emma took it home for her daughter. I was seething and we didn’t talk for two years. Eventually my husband turned up at Emma’s with a trailer and took it back.”
Emma says: “I was speechless. I cried afterwards.”
The sisters say their parents fuelled their feud and would speak to them separately.
“Mum would get really upset, but never tried to push us back together” says Emma.
‘I even said I would kill her’
“So I just got on with it. I didn’t tell people I had a sister.
“On the very rare occasions we had to message, they were polite and formal.”
In 2015 Caroline’s husband died aged 67 from pancreatic cancer.
“I didn’t want Emma at the funeral,” she says.
“But she turned up anyway. I sent her a card afterwards anyway thanking her.”
Emma recalls: “I couldn’t not be there. I just sat at the back and left quietly.”
Despite Caroline’s grief, the sisters remained estranged. They briefly reunited in 2017 when their dad was raced to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Ynysmaerdy, South Wales, with sepsis.
“We sat by the bed for three weeks, thinking he would die, but he rallied,” says Emma. “We then went back to no contact. Even when my husband Kevin was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer, I didn’t talk to her about it.”
The sisters’ mum, Jeanette, now 93, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2024 and they opted to fit a live camera in her home. But Emma would turn it off when she went round to see her.
“I didn’t like being snooped on,” she reasons.
“So I said this in a family WhatsApp chat and it blew up. I got chucked out of that chat by my sister.”
Caroline says: “I don’t block people easily, but I did this time because she was ranting and I didn’t want to engage.”
In April last year, a crisis team was summoned to help their mum who was becoming increasingly unstable and suffering hallucinations. As tensions ran high, Emma shouted at Caroline.
“I screamed at her,” she says. “I used every bit of arsenal I had, accusing her of wanting to be an only child and calling her the worst swear words imaginable. I even said I would kill her, only I didn’t want to go to prison for her.”
Caroline found it deeply hurtful.
“You can’t un-say things once they are said,” she says. “Calling people names doesn’t clear the air.”
Tensions eased
It was their dad’s death in December at the Princess Royal Hospital, Cardiff, after a short bout of pneumonia, which eased tensions.
“We sat by the end of his bed and laughed together,” says Emma.
“We’d joke, ‘Is he ever going to die?’ and say, ‘For God’s sake, Dad, go!’
“We’d had so little sleep and by the third day we thought, ‘Is this ever going to end?’ They gave us one single camp bed and I’m 5ft 11in, so we were kicking each other.
“We only had one pair of earplugs, so we cut them in half – but Caroline’s got stuck in her ear. It was a farce. In the end, we went home and he died. I felt nothing but relief.”
Caroline adds: “He must have died just as we left. I felt a bit cheated.”
Both women are insistent they won’t fall out again.
“Nobody makes me laugh like Emma,” says Caroline. “But we’re very different.”
Emma agrees: “I won’t take any bulls***. I have a very blunt personality.
“But Caroline is the love of my life. When I was little I would draw family pictures and make her huge, because she’s the one I loved the most. I still do.”