Jerry O'Connell beams with pride as twin daughters celebrate major milestone

Jerry O'Connell was a proud dad as he shared a sweet new photo of his 17-year-old twins, Charlie and Dolly, whom he welcomed with his wife, Rebecca Romijn, in 2008.

The pair looked stunning as they prepared for their school's homecoming event, with one dressed in a strapless white minidress featuring ruching around the bodice and skirt, and the other sporting a burgundy minidress with spaghetti straps.

The girls were as tall as their father in their heels, and stood beside Jerry for the sweet family photo. "HOCO '26 is for the dads too! Happy HOCO ladies!" he wrote in the caption, referring to their homecoming event.

Fans of the Stand By Me actor couldn't believe how much Charlie and Dolly had grown, with one writing: "What glamorous young ladies!" while another added: "Beautiful x2." A third chimed in: "Everyone is gorgeous!" while another said: "Can't believe how grown up they are," and a fifth declared: "Beauties!"

Flying the nest

The twins are currently in their final year of high school, and Jerry and his wife are already preparing for the moment when they move out of home and kickstart their college careers.

"We're doing pretty good. We adopted another dog. That's how we're dealing with it," he told People. "My wife is handling it pretty well. We realized it's a good thing we like each other, or that would be awkward, because we're spending a lot of time together. And everyone says that they come home anyway, so I think it will be fine."

"I'm trying to teach them life lessons like how to validate for parking," he continued. "We all went to lunch together the other day, but they drove their car that they share because they don't like to go with us. They didn't understand why they had to validate."

"They said it was just $5, but I told them, yes, but it's my $5. There's inflation. Go into a store and ask if they validate. These are the kinds of life lessons they need."

Heartbreak at home

Jerry has also helped his daughters navigate heartbreak with some unconventional advice, as he shared on Live with Kelly and Mark.

"Recently, there was a little bit of heartbreak in our household. And I said to my daughter, 'Listen, these kinds of things happen. Your mom has been wanting to leave me for a very long time,'" he joked. "And I said, 'You know what you have to do now?' My daughter was like, 'What?' 'You've got to go out with his best friend.'"

He quipped that his daughter called him a "monster", but she eventually decided to take his advice. 

"The next day [she] was like, 'Uh, Dad, I was thinking about what you were saying, and I threw a Snap to his friend. I'll see what happens. Be open to the universe, right, Dad? Be open to the universe.'"