Mac Safari 17.5. Monterey 12.7.5. Two persistent tabs always appear in any new window I open.

If I open a new window (as "start page"), there are 2 website tabs that always appear as tabs in that or any other newly opened window's tab row. This just started a few weeks ago. I see them in the tab row at the top of the window and they appear in "tab overview" as well. It's always the same 2 websites only. I have those 2 websites purposefully open in another window (they are the first two tabs/websites open in a window with about 10 other tabs open)... and if I close either tab in any of the windows (where I don't want them), it will close those tabs in the window where I do want them! So I've just been letting it happen, but it is a bit annoying.

In summary: Any new window I open in Safari always has those 2 tabbed websites in the tab row at the top along with the blank "start page".

Any thoughts?