It’s hard to find surprising facts about
celebrities nowadays. From their biography, we feel like we know everything we need about their lives down to the smallest details. However, there are some celebrity family secrets that even the most hardcore fans don’t know. Even the celebs themselves are unaware of these stories about their past!
So let’s discover these celebrity family secrets! Here are 10 facts about your favorite Hollywood stars that you might have never heard before.
1. Vlad the Impaler And Robert Pattinson Are Relatives
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Robert Pattinson became famous after his portrayal of Edward Cullen, a vampire in the Twilight Saga. In reality, he is a distant relative of a real-life vampire and a quite famous one too. He was related to the fifteenth-century Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler. Vlad’s stories inspired the most infamous vampire of all time: Dracula.
2. Julia Roberts Almost Had A Different Surname
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Julia Roberts’s supposed great-great-grandfather was Henry McDonald Mitchell. However, Mitchell couldn’t legally marry her great-great-grandmother, Rhoda Suttle Roberts, because he already had six legitimate children from another marriage.Mitchell passed away 10 years before Julia’s great-grandfather was born, therefore his son should have the surname of Roberts instead of Mitchell. Julia was shocked by her family’s story but confessed that she still prefer the name Roberts more.
3. Edward Norton Is Related To Pocahontas
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Edward Norton is a direct descendent of the legendary Pocahontas, the leader of a tribe of Native Americans. The actor grew up believing this story was just a “family legend,” but modern technology proved him wrong. By tracing Norton’s ancestry recently, experts discovered that Pocahontas was indeed his twelfth great-grandmother.
4. Sarah Jessica Parker’s And Claire Danes’ Ancestors Were The Infamous Salem Witches
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Sarah Jessica Parker and Claire Danes have one common in their bloodline: they’re both the descendants of Salem witches. Parker’s 10th great-grandmother was the luckier one. She was found innocent in her trial and got to live until she passed away at 82 years old. Danes’ ancestor wasn’t as lucky. She was found guilty of witchcraft and became one of the last victims of the Salem Witch Trials.
5. Cindy Crawford Is Ernest Hemingway’s Descendant
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Cindy Crawford once fantasized about being a descendant of America’s literary giant Ernest Hemingway. Turns outs her fantasy isn’t just a family rumor and is 100% true. Technology has traced her roots back to the famous author.
6. Kevin Bacon And His Wife Are Actually Distant Relatives
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Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick only looked into their genealogical ancestry for fun, but they found a very shocking fact instead. Turns out they are 9th cousins, something both of their families were unaware of.
7. Riley Keough Is Elvis Presley’s Grandchild
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Riley Keough is a direct descendant of the famous Elvis Presley. Her mother is the late singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of the rock star. That makes Riley Elvis Presley’s grandchild.
8. Queen Elizabeth II and Johnny Depp Are Cousins
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Johnny Depp is a Hollywood royalty and a distant member of the British royal family in real life. They share the same ancestor through King Edward III of England, who ruled in the 1300s. He and the late Queen Elizabeth II are twentieth cousins.
9. Oprah Winfrey Had A Secret Sister
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Oprah Winfrey’s mother, Vernita, had another daughter named Patricia. Vernita had to give Patricia up for adoption in 1963 and had been keeping secrets about her for 47 years. Oprah later discovered about her half-sister and the two bonded. They even went to the 2011 Academy Awards together.
10. Glenn Close Is Related To Princess Diana
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Glenn Close and Princess Diana are eighth cousins. Close found out about their relationship during one of her appearances on a TV series. The two previously shared a picture in March 1989 at the premiere of Dangerous Liaisons, but the actress was completely unaware of the fact at that time.
Those are 10 celebrity family secrets that you probably never knew before. For more stories on Hollywood stars’ past, check out our previous post
here. These actresses have some very dark background stories, but they don’t let that get in the way of their dreams. Check them out!