safari syncing 34 tabs that i closed months ago

i have an iPad air 3rd gen and an iPhone 13. when i go into safari on my iPhone it shows dozens of tabs still listed as open on my ipad that i closed long ago, going back months. it also did this on my last iPhone which was the iPhone 7 but i have never had this problem on my ipad and none of these tabs showing on my iphone are actually open or showing on my ipad and if i try to close all them they just reappear. also the tabs it shows aren’t always the exact same ones they seem to change over time.

yes i have the latest software updates and latest app updates. i’ve tried turning off and on safari syncing under iCloud settings on both devices and turn off and on again both devices and that didn’t work, thought about deleting both my backups to maybe clear it that way? but i don’t know if that would cause me to lose all my data off my devices before i rebacked them up. please help.