Julia Roberts, the famous Hollywood actress, recently discovered a shocking secret about her heritage on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
It turns out that she is not actually a Roberts, as her supposed great-great-grandfather, Willis Roberts, had actually died more than a decade before her great-grandfather, John, was born.
The episode of the show, which aired on Wednesday, showed Roberts learning about this revelation.
Gates shared the news with the Oscar-winning actress and explained that through DNA testing, they were able to tie Roberts and her cousin to a man named Henry McDonald Mitchell Jr., who was her biological great-great grandfather.
Upon hearing this news, Roberts was understandably shocked and asked Gates, “But, oh wait, am I not a Roberts?”.
To which Gates responded, “You are not a Roberts biologically.”
He then went on to explain that Roberts is actually a Mitchell.
“So we’re Mitchells?” Roberts asked Gates.
“You’re Julia Mitchell. You are not a Roberts biologically,” he replied.
The news seemed to take Roberts by surprise as she exclaimed, “Wow. Is my head on straight still? Am I facing you?”
Gates and his team did extensive research on the new discovery.
According to the research, Mitchell was married with six children and his mother lived four houses away from Rhoda Suttle Roberts, Julia’s great-great-grandmother.
Roberts’ reaction to the news was mixed.
She said, “On the one hand, truly my mind is blown. And it is fascinating. And on the other hand, there is, you know, part of me when I’m calmer, you know, can still wrap my arms around the idea that, you know, my family is my family. And I do prefer the name Roberts.”
This revelation about Julia Roberts’ heritage comes shortly after the internet was abuzz about the fact that civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. had paid the hospital bill for her birth.
