Historical Figures You Didn't Know Were Related

The world is a big place, and it's been filled with people for a very long time. It has been estimated that about 117 billion people have lived on this planet since the beginning of time, living all kinds of different lives in all kinds of different places. So it's remarkable enough that a few folks become well-known enough that even decades or centuries after their death, we're still talking about them. It's even more surprising to learn that historical figures who seem to have nothing to do with each other are actually related.

Knowing that some famous folks involved in the most momentous events of their time are cousins or in-laws makes them suddenly human, and so our brains might reject the idea. Like the six degrees of separation phenomenon, it shrinks our world in ways that seem impossible, although when you consider how many people are linked directly to Genghis Khan, it's not so surprising. So get ready for some shrinkage, because here are some historical figures you didn't know were related.

At first glance, you might not see much evidence of a familial relationship between former United States President George W. Bush and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Bush, after all, is the scion of one of the most powerful political families in modern times, and can trace his ancestry back to the Mayflower. On the other hand, Hefner was best known for wearing pajamas and making a mint from racy photographs.

However, Bush and Hefner were cousins (Hefner passed away in 2017). Distant cousins, to be sure, but definitely related: Hefner and Bush are ninth cousins, with both being descended directly from William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims who took the Mayflower to the New World in the 1600s.

Hefner wasn't entirely pleased with the discovery. A lifelong supporter of the Democratic party, he threw his support behind Senator John Kerry in the 2004 election, who is also a ninth cousin of Hefner's. Ninth cousins aren't terribly close relations — it means their closest common ancestor is a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent — but it would still get you into the family reunion if someone rented a football stadium to have one.

Former President Barack Obama is distantly related to a lot of famous people. Obama can call six fellow presidents kin: James Madison, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, and George Bush, Sr. He's also a ninth cousin to actor Brad Pitt, related through a guy named Edwin Hickman who lived in Virginia in the 1700s. And another brain-wrinklingly famous name related to Obama? Confederate General Robert E. Lee. But the most extraordinary relation that Obama can point to is his other distant cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, perhaps the most famous British Prime Minister of all time. 

It's one thing to think about an American president being related to other Americans. It's quite another to imagine him related to the jowly, cigar-loving hero of World War II. The family connection to Winston Churchill is through Obama's maternal line, and originates from Sir Thomas Stanley, who was a member of the British aristocracy and lived over 500 years ago.

We all have relatives who seem like they come from a completely different planet. Some of our cousins and siblings so obviously share our DNA that it's easy to feel connected to them, while others might as well be adopted. And sometimes when you learn that two historical figures are related, however distantly, you can't help but wonder "How does that happen?"

Such is the case of Princess Diana and Sarah Palin. Yes, former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the "Mama Grizzly Bear" herself. It's hard to see any relationship between the elegant, poised princess and the conservative, all-American politician, but the two are tenth cousins. Palin and Diana's connection dates back to a man named John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford. Strong was born in England in 1605 and sailed for America, where he passed away in 1699.

Then there's Palin's other famous cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32^nd U.S. president. They share John Lothrop as a common ancestor; Lothrop moved to Massachusetts in 1634, making Palin and Roosevelt ninth cousins once removed. Obviously, political skill isn't a genetic trait, or else Palin might be president herself today, instead of appearing as the Bear on "The Masked Singer."

It's not exactly a secret that the royal families of Europe are all very closely related. After centuries of intermarriage (because no one is more conscious of rank than royals), you can actually trace every European royal family back to one person: King George II of England, who ruled from 1727 to 1760. His children and grandchildren went forth and married into all the other royal families, linking them all as a single superfamily.

And that's how we found ourselves in the curious position of fighting a World War that might have been better described as a family squabble. The leaders of the three largest European powers in World War I — King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia — weren't just related. They were first cousins who all called Queen Victoria of England their grandmother. They even looked remarkably alike, and Wilhelm and Nicholas were close enough that they called each other — and we are not making this up — Willy and Nicky.

Willy and Nicky exchanged a series of letters that ended with a terse letter from Wilhelm reading, "I must request you to immediately order your troops on no account to commit the slightest act of trespassing over our frontiers." War was declared that evening, and the world's greatest family feud was underway.

If you look hard enough, you'll theoretically be able to find a connection to some very famous and surprising people in your family tree. And learning that two famous people are "tenth cousins once removed" might not seem impressive. So while it's interesting to find out that actor Tom Hanks is related to iconic president Abraham Lincoln, it becomes kind of amazing when you find out that Hanks isn't that distant a relative: he is Lincoln's third cousin, four times removed. When you're reminded that Lincoln's mother was named Nancy Hanks, it all starts to make sense.

Hanks himself has a good sense of humor about his connection to Lincoln, noting to the Ancestry.com blog that his branch of the family could probably be considered the "poor relations" to Lincoln, whose last direct descendant died in 1985. He also notes that he was aware of the connection as a kid, and thus did all his school reports on Lincoln.

Two huge figures from American history were related through marriage: George Washington and Robert E. Lee. What makes it interesting is that Washington was one of the Founding Fathers — and arguably the man who did the most to establish the United States as a cohesive nation with a strong federal government — and Lee was a Confederate general who fought to split the nation in two. But the two men were kind of related to each other.

It's often forgotten, but George Washington's wife Martha was married twice. She married Daniel Parke Custis at the age of 18, and he left her a widow with two children when she was just 25. George Washington later adopted her grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, as his son. That makes Mary Custis Lee, the woman who would eventually marry Robert E. Lee, the step-great-granddaughter of George Washington — making these two very different men family.

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States and the son of Founding Father John Adams, the second president. Orson Welles was a brilliant actor, writer, and director who pranked the entire country with his 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." Adams was born in 1767 and Welles in 1915, so they would seem to have very little to do with each other — yet they're both descended from the same Mayflower passenger: John Alden.

Alden's an interesting figure. He was hired on as part of the Mayflower's crew, working as a cooper (making and repairing barrels and casks), and married passenger Priscilla Mullins, whose entire family died in the first brutal winter after landing. Alden went on to be a prominent figure in the New World, consistently elected to government positions and serving as deputy governor twice. The couple had 11 children, which is a great way to ensure you're linked to almost everyone in America, and became an early romantic meme thanks to being the subjects of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" in 1858.

Alden was in fact the great-great-great-grandfather of John Quincy Adams through his daughter Ruth. Welles is a little more distantly related, having been born a century and a half later, making him Adams' fifth cousin, four times removed.

Thanks to a certain Broadway musical, everyone knows the basics of Alexander Hamilton's life: Born out of wedlock in the Caribbean, he traveled to America and became one of the key figures in the American Revolution, then was a part of George Washington's administration, and was finally killed by his frenemy Aaron Burr in a completely ridiculous duel. The fact that he's a 10th cousin, five times removed to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt isn't so widely known.

Both trace their lineage back to a 15th-century Scottish aristocrat named James Hamilton, who became the First Lord Hamilton in 1445. This also means that Eleanor Roosevelt is descended from King James V of Scotland, who married Hamilton's granddaughter Eleanor. In fact, Eleanor's family tree practically bursts with royalty, including the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, who was her 34^th great-grandfather.

Hamilton's family tree is less glamorous; his father basically abandoned his family, and his mother died while he was still young, leaving him an impoverished orphan. Still, the connection between the two underscores the fact that America's ruling elite is actually a pretty small group of people. After all, Eleanor and her husband, Franklin, were fifth cousins, and she was President Theodore Roosevelt's niece (Franklin was Teddy's fifth cousin).

For many people, their sole knowledge of Geoffrey Chaucer is their brief encounter with "The Canterbury Tales" in school. Chaucer's classic work of Middle English is an important moment in the development of the language (and is pretty entertaining, once you get past the language barrier), but not everyone realizes that Chaucer was actually pretty powerful and influential in his time. He mingled with kings and other high-powered aristocrats and became the comptroller of the customs for the port of London in 1374 — a plum appointment that required considerable influence.

Some of that influence was due to his marriage. Chaucer married Philippa Roet, whose sister Katherine Swynford married John of Gaunt (a good friend of Chaucer's). John was the son of King Edward III, and one of his sons from a previous marriage later became King Henry IV, so Chaucer was connected via marriage to the English monarchy.

That means he was also related by marriage to Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England. Richard was John of Gaunt's great-grandson and was killed at the end of the Wars of the Roses, which saw the Tudor line claim the throne.

For those who remember the presidential election of 2004, the name John Kerry will always conjure an image of a classic "Boston Brahmin." The term refers to a certain old-money aristocracy in New England, supposedly enlightened and politically involved. Kerry certainly fits the mold: He's so old-money in Massachusetts, he's distantly related to the state's most famous poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson became the leading American intellectual in the 19^th century with essays like "Nature" and "Self-Reliance." His poetry and other writings were tremendously influential — both Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau named him as a key influence. He was consequently wealthy, and his family members were among the most important in Massachusetts.

Kerry and Emerson share a common ancestor dating back to the 17^th century: The Reverend Edward Bulkeley. Not only that, Kerry is part of a branch of the mega-wealthy Forbes family, which linked with the Emerson family in the 19^th century when Colonel William Hathaway Forbes married Emerson's daughter Edith. The Forbes were so wealthy and influential that when Forbes married Emerson — again, the daughter of one of America's most respected and celebrated poets — he was marrying "down" on the social ladder.

Sometimes, a very extended family can shape the fate of not just a nation, but the world itself. That's the case with Protestant leader Martin Luther, who launched the Reformation in Germany in the 16^th century, and Paul von Hindenburg, German war hero and the man who allowed Adolf Hitler to seize power right from under him. Hindenburg was a direct descendant of Luther through his daughter, Margareta Luther, and was very proud of his association with Luther. The relationship between Luther and Hindenburg underscores how a single genetic line can have a profound influence on history.

Considering that connection, it's not surprising that Hindenburg was a member of the Lutheran Church. In fact, Hindenburg was considered to exemplify the Lutheran faith and values, which becomes ironic when you consider Luther's tilt towards antisemitism in his later life, which had a direct influence on Hitler and the Nazi ideology. As president of Germany, an aging and possibly senile Hindenburg basically allowed Hitler to weasel his way into control of the country, creating a kind of horrifying time loop in history.

Sometimes you have to wonder if a family's genetic traits make it ideally suited for a specific role in history. Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro were Spanish explorers and conquistadors — and second cousins, once removed, through Pizarro's father. These two men managed to almost completely destroy two of the greatest civilizations in the world, and all within the space of a few years. 

Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire in the early 1500s and brought smallpox with him. The Aztecs, who had never been exposed to the disease, were decimated by it. Cortés almost single-handedly destroyed a civilization that had thrived for centuries, and his cousin repeated the act a few years later. 

Pizarro traveled to South America in the 1530s and tricked the emperor of the Incas, Atahuallpa, into an ambush. When Atahuallpa offered him a tremendous amount of gold for his ransom, Pizarro agreed, but put him on trial and had him executed anyway. When he received reinforcements from Spain, Pizarro made quick work of destroying the leaderless Incan Empire, which had existed for centuries. Two cousins managed to more or less destroy the indigenous cultures of two continents, and yet few people today realize they were related.

It may seem hard to believe, yet one of the 20th century's most admired sex symbols was related to one of that era's most notorious dictators. In fact, Sophia Loren — widely recognized as the world's most beautiful woman during her heyday in the 1950s and '60s — had a family connection to Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader who gained power in Italy in the 1920s, and allied with Germany and Japan during the Second World War.

So how did the beloved movie star wind up related to Il Duce? As it turned out, Loren's unexpected connection to the former dictator came nearly two decades after Mussolini's ignominious death via firing squad. In 1962, her sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, married Mussolini's son, jazz pianist Romano Mussolini. Not unexpectedly, the marriage was controversial, and the scandal continued to cling to Loren.

During a 1984 appearance on "The Merv Griffin Show," viewers were shown a picture of Loren and her sister, with host Merv Griffin asking if she was the one who married a Mussolini. Loren was quick to point out that her sister had since gotten divorced, but had two children. Interestingly, one of those kids — Loren's niece, Alessandra Mussolini — entered Italian politics as a member of Italy's parliament, resurrecting her disgraced grandfather's fascist ideals.

As British royalty, King Charles III can boast of blood ties that wind throughout European aristocracy for thousands of years. Among the many things we didn't know about Charles was that his family tree extends all the way back to 15th-century Walachia, now known as the Transylvania region of Romania. According to no less a source than the king himself, he's related to Vlad the Impaler, whose legendary brutality served as the inspiration for Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

The connecting link is Mary of Teck, a German princess who was Charles' great-grandmother. Known as Queen Mary during the reign of her husband, King George V, not only was she the namesake for an iconic ocean liner, but genealogical evidence indicates that Queen Mary was a descendant of one of Vlad's sons. 

That family connection may explain why Charles owns several properties in Transylvania. Charles discovered his ties to Vlad the Impaler after making his first visit to Transylvania in 1998, and is reportedly quite proud of his connection to the notorious warlord. In fact, the great-great-grandmother of King Charles' late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was Hungarian Countess Klaudia Rhedey, who was born and raised in Transylvania. 

Both George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte came to power after leading successful revolutions in their respective countries, with the former becoming the United States of America's first president, and the latter overthrowing the French monarchy before declaring himself emperor. Not only did the two former generals share a similar trajectory, they also shared a family connection. 

As it turned out, several of Bonaparte's siblings wound up living in the U.S., with his youngest brother, Jérôme, being the first member of the family to reside stateside. Bonaparte's connection to Washington, however, came through another of his siblings, younger sister Caroline Bonaparte. During the height of Bonaparte's rise, Caroline and her husband, Joachim Murat, were made king and queen of Naples. After the fateful Battle of Waterloo, however, Murat was executed and Caroline was sent to Austria in exile.

Both of their sons wound up relocating to the U.S., with Achille Murat — who had previously been known as Prince Achille — setting foot in his new homeland in 1823, eventually settling in Florida. A few years later, in 1826, he married Catherine Daingerfield Willis Gray, Washington's great-grandniece, forging a connection between the two brilliant military strategists.

Elizabeth Windsor and Philip Mountbatten were married in 1947, just a few years before she became Queen Elizabeth II and he became known as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. While the two were spouses for over 70 years until their respective deaths, they were actually related by more than just marriage. In fact, the two could have been described as "kissing cousins," given that they actually shared the same great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Elizabeth's connection to Victoria came through her father, King George VI, whose own father, King George V, was a grandson of Victoria and her husband Prince Albert.

Following Philip's family tree, his mother's mother was Princess Victoria, whose mother, Princess Alice, was the second daughter of Victoria and Albert. That made the queen and her husband third cousins. Interestingly, they were also second cousins, twice removed, through another family line, with both related to Christian IX, king of Denmark from 1863 until 1906. Despite being born into royalty when he arrived in the world on the Greek island of Corfu — his father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, while his mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg — the tragic truth about Philip's childhood was that it was full of hardship and upheavals. 

Known for her versatility as an actor, Helena Bonham-Carter's family history is a rich one. Her maternal great-grandfather was H. H. Asquith, who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 until 1916. Interestingly, Asquith's tenure as prime minister came at the same time as the British suffragette movement, which he vehemently opposed. That led to a bit of controversy when Bonham-Carter was cast in the 2015 film "Suffragette," in the role of a suffragette whose stance was in direct opposition to that of Asquith. 

According to the film's director, Sarah Gavron, she initially questioned whether Bonham-Carter would want to take on a role that so clearly placed her great-grandfather on the wrong side of history. "Once we read about her family history, we were a little bit trepidatious," Gavron told The Credits. "What would she think about this? Her playing a militant suffragette when she's a descendant of the arch-enemy?"

Bonham-Carter did ultimately take the role, yet another acting job also referenced a member of her family when she played Princess Margaret in Netflix drama "The Crown." As she explained while speaking at Cheltenham Literary Festival, the princess she portrayed onscreen had once dated her uncle, Mark Bonham-Carter, who served as a Grenadier Guard at Windsor Castle. "It's weird," she said of re-enacting that chapter in Margaret's life (via The Sun), "I basically went out with my uncle."

British actor Anna Chancellor has amassed an impressive array of screen credits, ranging from British espionage series "MI5" to the 2024 historical comedy "My Lady Jane." As it happens, Chancellor is related to Helena Bonham-Carter, in that they are second cousins, once removed; Chancellor is the great-great-granddaughter of Bonham-Carter's great-grandpa, former British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith. Chancellor, however, is said to have many other famous forebears, including Mary Boleyn, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and her six-times great-aunt, famed author Jane Austen. 

For Chancellor herself, though, being confronted with all of her celebrated relatives from past history is simply an embarrassment. "Can't you imagine?" she told The Independent. "You've worked hard all your life to be an actress, or whatever you've done, and that is what's presented to you. Don't you think that's embarrassing? I don't enjoy being quoted as saying that's who I am, because I don't feel that is who I am."

Chancellor's connection to Jane Austen went further than blood when she starred in a 1995 TV adaptation of Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." Chancellor played Caroline Bingley, to whom Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) showed little interest. That, she said, presented something of a stretch for her as an actor. "Being a spurned woman — it wasn't something that I had particularly experienced in my own life," she observed.

"Game of Thrones" viewers will remember actor Harry Lloyd from the first season, when he portrayed the older brother of Daenerys Targaryen, Viserys (whose character's grisly demise was one of the most epic deaths in "Game of Thrones"). He is also the great-great-great-grandson of iconic British novelist Charles Dickens; his mother is directly descended from one of Dickens' 10 children, Henry Fielding Dickens.

Fittingly, Lloyd has appeared in not one but two made-for-television versions of his great-great-great-grandfather's works, appearing in the 1999 miniseries "David Copperfield" (his first professional acting role) and, more than a decade later, in 2011's "Great Expectations." "If you're going to be related to someone it might as well be Dickens," he told The Independent, admitting he'd come to take his ancestry in stride. "It's like I was born with an extra finger — it's just one of the things that I came with."

He is also a massive admirer of his forebear's novels, and actually did his thesis on Dickens when attending Oxford. In fact, he credits his family connection to the author with setting him on the path he chose. "It made me start reading very early," he told The Standard. "His biggest influence on me is I'm a fan."

Hillary Clinton and Madonna handily rank as two of the most famous women of the final quarter of the 20th century, with the former transforming from two-term first lady to secretary of state and presidential candidate, while the latter attained stardom in the 1980s and maintained it in the decades since then. And while those respective achievements are no mean feats, who knew that the two are actually related? 

That was the conclusion of late genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner, whose research found that Clinton and Madonna are distantly related, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Madonna is also related to French-Canadian chanteuse Céline Dion, Queen Camilla (formerly Camilla Parker Bowles), and movie star Angelina Jolie, all through a lineage going back to 17th-century Quebec. Interestingly, another study — from the New England Historic Genealogical Society — confirmed that Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins twice removed, sharing a common ancestor, Jean Cusson, a French settler to Quebec who died in 1718.

Socialite-turned-reality TV star Paris Hilton has a familial connection (albeit somewhat tenuous) to late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor. That came through the first of Taylor's many marriages, when the 18-year-old Hollywood star married 24-year-old hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. (nicknamed Nicky) in 1950. The marriage did not last long; they divorced the following year. His younger brother, Barron Hilton, is the "Simple Life" star's grandfather. 

Hilton has also claimed to be related to another Hollywood sex symbol, as well as Britain's royal family. "My mom just did one of those 23andMe DNA kits and I am related to Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth," Hilton told Cosmopolitan. "That's what it said!"

If that is indeed the case, it would deepen the reasons why Hilton has long been an admirer of Monroe. That was evident when she named her daughter Marilyn, honoring both her grandmother, Marilyn J. Hilton, and the "Some Like It Hot" star. 

When Taylor Swift's fans scooped up her 2024 album, "Tortured Poets Department," it's doubtful many of them knew that she's a distant relative of the original tortured poet, Emily Dickinson. Data from Ancestry demonstrated that Swift and Dickinson are sixth cousins, three times removed. "The remarkable connection between Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson is just one example of the incredible things you can discover when you explore your past," Ancestry's Jennifer Utley remarked in a press release (via USA Today). "Even if we don't know it, our pasts can influence our present."

As it turned out, the two women both descended from Jonathan Gillette, a 17th-century settler to Connecticut, who was Dickinson's sixth great-grandfather and Swift's ninth great-grandfather. Perhaps not coincidentally, Dickinson has long been an influence on Taylor's songwriting; in 2020, she announced plans to release her "Evermore" album on December 10, Dickinson's birthday. 

When accepting the NSAI's Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award in 2022, Swift revealed that she has three categories of lyrics, based upon what type of writing instrument she pictures in her hand: quill, fountain pen, and glitter gel pen. As she said in her speech, "quill lyrics" utilized languages and phrases that are somewhat antiquated. "If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson's great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that's me writing in the quill genre," she quipped (via NME). 

Kit Harington skyrocketed to stardom as Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones," which is loosely based on an actual chapter in British history. However, it was a subsequent project that hit far closer to home: "Gunpowder," a 2017 BBC drama based on the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a thwarted attempt to assassinate King James I during the opening of Parliament by exploding barrels of gunpowder that had been stashed in the cellar. In the film, Harington portrayed ringleader Robert Catesby, whose aim was to kill the Protestant king and end the brutal persecution of Catholics during that era.

Harington wasn't merely dramatizing a historical figure, but was actually a direct descendant of the man he was playing. His mother's maiden name, in fact, is Catesby, which is also his middle name. "It's always been a piece of family curiosity, really. 'Do you know, if you go all the way back, your ancestor was the leader of the Gunpowder Plot, even though everyone thinks it was Guy Fawkes?'" Harington told The Guardian (Fawkes, who is burned in effigy during an annual British holiday named after him, was caught red-handed and blamed, although Catesby was the true mastermind).

For Harington, digging into a story that has become so mythologized over the centuries was eye-opening. "I didn't actually know a lot about Catesby," he told The Independent. "It was only by doing some research into the gunpowder plot, that I started to understand how these people worked."

Among Benedict Cumberbatch's numerous screen performances, a fan favorite has been his take on iconic fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the BBC drama "Sherlock." The intensity of the connection that Cumberbatch formed with the sleuth he portrayed shouldn't be surprising when considering that the actor is actually related to Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Research from Ancestry determined that Cumberbatch and Doyle, who died in 1930, are 16th cousins twice removed. Their family connection comes through another famous figure in British history, John of Gaunt, who was the second person in England to hold the title Duke of Lancaster (he was Doyle's 15th great-grandfather, and Cumberbatch's 17th great-grandfather). "How rare that an actor in a major series has the chance to play a character created by a relative, especially one as iconic as Sherlock Holmes," said Ancestry historian Jennifer Utley, as reported by CBS News. 

Cumberbatch also shares a link with another role he's played: notorious ruler King Richard III, whom the actor portrayed in TV miniseries "The Hollow Crown." That connection was discovered by University of Leicester genealogist Kevin Schurer. "I was literally dressed as Shakespeare's version of Richard III when I received the email from Leicester University saying that I was a not-altogether-ridiculously-distant descendent of Richard III," Cumberbatch told the BBC. "I'm a third cousin, 16 times removed, which is still distant but puts me ahead of an awful lot of other people."

Meghan Markle has been enmeshed in controversy ever since the former "Suits" star began dating her future husband, Prince Harry. And while the Duchess of Sussex has no royal blood running through her veins, her ancestry does weave back to some hugely influential figures in British history. 

At the top of that ancestral list is Sir Winston Churchill, prime minister of the U.K. during the Second World War, and widely regarded as one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century. MyHeritage.com traced her ancestry to Churchill, discovering that they are sixth cousins, five times removed, who share a common ancestor: Zachariah Howe, who was born in Massachusetts and a descendant of British settlers.

Markle is also related to William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon's fifth cousin, 13 times removed. "I'm sure she will be delighted to know that she comes from such prestigious British stock," a MyHeritage.com spokesperson told Newsweek. "We are not sure if Ms. Markle is aware of her connection to such eminent Britons, however, it seems that she was always destined to be a Brit."

Another British actor with nobility in her ancestry is Tilda Swinton. While Swinton herself was born in London, her ancestors hailed from Scotland. Researchers at Edinburgh-based ScotlandsPeople Centre discovered that both of Swinton's parents can trace their respective family trees back to Robert the Bruce, the 14th-century king of Scotland who was instrumental in freeing his country from British rule.

Researchers found that Swinton's parents were each descended from the legendary king's grandson, Robert II. Swinton's father, Sir John Swinton, is descended from Robert II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Albany, while her mother, Australian-born Judith Swinton, is descended through another illegitimate child, born to Robert II's mistress, Mariotta Cardney.

Other famous descendants of Robert the Bruce include Sir Winston Churchill, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, and, believe it or not, actor Hilary Duff, who learned about the connection through an episode of genealogical TV show "Who Do You Think You Are?" that proved him to be her 21-times great-grandfather, while also determining she was descended from William the Conqueror.

Among the many facts about legendary rock star Ozzy Osbourne is his physical durability. There appears to be a hereditary reason for that, given the findings of DNA research conducted by Massachusetts-based firm Knome, which strove to determine what made Osbourne's genetic makeup so unique. As it turned out, Osbourne shares DNA with Neanderthal ancestors, as well as ancient Romans who survived the volcanic explosion of Mount Vesuvius on the island of Pompeii. That testing also determined that he was a distant relative of notorious Old West outlaw Jesse James. More intriguingly, Osbourne was also found to have a family connection with royalty: he is related to both Britain's King George I and Russia's Tsar Nicholas II. 

According to Osbourne, it's this genetic makeup that's allowed him to remain alive as long as he has. "Given the swimming pools of booze I've guzzled over the years — not to mention all of the cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, Rohypnol ... you name it — there's really no plausible medical reason why I should still be alive," he observed in an interview with the Sunday Times (via CBS News).

Actor Edward Norton has portrayed his share of historical figures on film, ranging from King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem in "Kingdom of Heaven" to folk singer Pete Seeger in the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown." Norton, however, has a familial connection to a famous figure in American history: Native American icon Pocahontas, who is linked to the earliest days of European colonization of America.

Like several celebrities, Norton discovered that particular branch of his family tree while appearing on the PBS genealogy-based series "Finding Your Roots." In that episode, host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed to Norton that Pocahontas was his 12th great-grandmother. "I understand that was family lore," Gates told the actor. "Well, it is absolutely true."

Norton was absolutely stunned by Gates' revelation that a paper trail dating back from the 1600s definitively proved he was descended from Pocahontas. "It just makes you realize what a small piece of the whole human story you are," Norton mused.