An absorbent incontinence article has a main body portion consisting of a front region, a back region and an interposed crotch region lying therebetween in a longitudinal direction when finally positioned between the legs of a wearer. The main body portion includes an absorbent core and material sections attached to at least one of the back and front regions which extend in the transverse direction beyond lateral lengthwise edges of the main body portion and connect the front region and the back region. The sections of material are folded over themselves along at least one lengthwise direction extending fold line. Partial sections of the material sections adjoining one another over an area in the folded configuration are releasably attached to one another at affixation points.