Modern Public Figures Related to Historical Ones
These facts about celebs are so out there, they almost sound fake, but trust us, they aren't.
Published 11 months ago in Wow
We all have our own family secrets, but most of ours are quirky and relatively inconsequential. However, there are families out there with pasts that are much, much more interesting than our own, and these thirteen celebrities come from families with more baggage than you could imagine.
These facts about celebs are so out there, they almost sound fake, but trust us, they aren't.
1
The famous supermodel Cindy Crawford and her model daughter, Kaia Gerber, happen to have big roots. Crawford had thought it was just a family rumor and fantasized about being related to one of America’s literary giants, Ernest Hemingway. But it turned out that she could trace her roots back to the renowned author.
2
Known for her roles in the thriller, The Good Doctor and the black-comedy film Zola, Riley Keough is a star in her own right. Nevertheless, she is better known for her illustrious lineage. The actress has Elvis Presley’s blood running in her. The actress and filmmaker was born to musician Danny Keough and the late singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of the famous rock star.
3
Nicolas Cage’s birth name is Nicolas Kim Coppola. And the reason that surname sounds familiar is that the actor and Sofia Coppola are first cousins. Sofia Coppola is the daughter of esteemed director Francis Ford Coppola, and Cage is the son of Francis’s older brother. They actually managed to keep their family ties from attracting too much attention.
4
Robert Pattinson, the star of the wildly popular supernatural series, Twilight, is related to a real-life vampire. The actor is a distant relative of the fifteenth-century Romanian ruler, Vlad III, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, who was also considered to be the inspiration for the most famous vampire of all time, Dracula.
5
Ancestry experts revealed that Hollywood royalty, Johnny Depp, shares the same distant bloodline as the royal family. They discovered a connection that established the famous actor and the late Queen Elizabeth II as twentieth cousins. They are both linked to King Edward III of England, who ruled in the 1300s.
7
Hugh Hefner surprisingly had conservative beginnings. In fact, through his father’s line, Hefner was a direct descendant of William Bradford, a Puritan leader who arrived on the Mayflower and became the governor of the Plymouth colony. And interestingly enough, he shares this ancestor with former President George W. Bush.
9
Versatile actress Glenn Close appeared on a TV series and found out that she was a distant cousin of Princess Diana. She and Princess Diana are eighth cousins. The 2 actually met and were photographed together in March 1989 at the premiere of Close’s film, Dangerous Liaisons, but it seems that Close only knew of their relationship during her appearance on the TV show.
10
Oprah Winfrey revealed that she has a half-sister that her mother, Vernita, had hidden from her. The sister, Patricia, had been given up for adoption in 1963, and her existence was kept secret from Winfrey for 47 years. The 2 sisters have bonded, and Winfrey even brought her to the Academy Awards in 2011.
11
For 37 years, Jack Nicholson believed that his mother, June, was his sister and that his grandmother, Ethel May, was his mother. June had a baby out of wedlock and pretended to be young Jack’s sister. Her mother and father acted as Nicholson’s parents. The actor only found out about the charade in 1970 when the fact was revealed by a journalist.
12
Edward Norton had grown up hearing he was a direct descendent of the indigenous figure Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the leader of a tribe of Native Americans. But the star believed the story was merely a “family legend.”However, while tracing Norton’s ancestry recently, it was discovered that his family roots go back further than he believed. In fact, the seventeenth-century Powhatan woman, Pocahontas, is indeed his twelfth great-grandmother.
13
Imagine finding out that one of your female ancestors risked her life to help secure freedom for slaves. When actress Zooey Deschanel went on a TV show about genealogy, she learned an amazing secret about her courageous ancestry. Her relatives owned a property that was a stop on the famed Underground Railroad.
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