Actress Julia Roberts learned something “fascinating” about herself following a DNA test.
During a Wednesday appearance on PBS’ “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” the host explained Julia Roberts’ great-great-grandmother, Rhoda Suttle Roberts, married a man named Willis Roberts.
He added, “Julia carries Willis’ last name. Willis passed away in 1864, over a decade before Rhoda gave birth to Julia’s great-grandfather John, leading to an inescapable conclusion.”
Gates Jr. declared Willis Roberts could not have possibly been her great-great-grandfather.
She replied, “Oh, wait — but am I not a Roberts?”
He went on to explain they later discovered a “cluster of matches” that traced the actress back to a man named Henry McDonald Mitchell Jr.
“So we’re Mitchell’s?” Julia Roberts asked.
Watch the video below:
Gates Jr. responded, “You’re Julia Mitchell. You are not a Roberts, biologically.”
Additionally, it was revealed that Mitchell had been married with children while having an affair with Julia Roberts’ great-great-grandmother, Rhoda.
When asked how she is feeling, Julia Roberts replied, “On the one hand, I — truly — my mind is blown. And it is fascinating. And on the other hand, there’s part of me that, when I’m calmer, can still wrap my arms around the idea that my family is my family. And I do prefer the name Roberts.”
She then declared it was “an unexpected turn.”
According to PBS’ website, Gates has “helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion,” for more than a decade.
He has “explored the ancestry of dozens of influential people from diverse backgrounds, taking millions of viewers deep into the past to reveal the connections that bind us all.”
