Julia Roberts is one of the most famous names in the world, having shot to stardom in films like Pretty Woman and Mystic Pizza, before becoming one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.
However, it turns out that her identity isn’t as clear as she might have thought, as she delved into her family history.
During a new episode of Finding Your Roots, which airs on PBS in the US, the 55-year-old actress caught up with host Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr, 72, to learn more about his father’s ancestry.
In an 1880 census for Douglas County, Georgia, Julia saw her great-grandfather John Pendleton Roberts and her mother, Rhoda Suttle…but John’s father was nowhere to be seen.
As it turns out, Rhoda was married to a Roberts – a man named Willis Roberts – but he died a decade before John was born, meaning it was impossible for him to have been Julia’s great-grandfather.
Although John’s father was not mentioned in any documents, Dr. Henry was able to do more research thanks to DNA provided by Julia and her first cousin, another of John’s descendants.
“Julia and one of her father’s first cousins, a descendant of John Roberts, agreed to do DNA testing,” he explained.
‘We then compared their results with people in publicly available databases looking for matches, hoping to identify John’s father through the DNA of his descendants. In the end, we found a cluster of matches that linked Julia and her cousin to a man.
That man in question was a person named Henry McDonald Mitchell Junior, Julia’s real biological great-grandfather.
“So we’re Mitchells?” Julia asked incredulously as Dr. Henry confirmed, “You’re Julia Mitchell,” prompting the Oscar winner to burst out laughing.
The historian emphasized that Julia ‘is not a Roberts biologically’, as she speculated that probably no one in her family knew the truth.
‘Well, that farm knew, because her husband wasn’t there and she was still having children!’ doctor Henry joked.
‘Is my head still on straight? Am I facing you? Julia continued, in complete shock.
The Doctor. Henry explained that while they couldn’t know for sure whether John knew who his father was, one piece of useful information suggested it might have been kept secret.
Henry appeared on the same 1880 census, but with his own wife, named Sarah, and their six children, and they lived just a few miles from Rhoda.
“A few kilometers, it seems,” Julia commented.
But that’s not all – Henry’s widowed mother, Elizabeth Mitchell, lived just four houses away from Rhoda, so it’s likely he went to visit his mother and therefore met Rhoda.
‘Then he would see his mother as a good boy,’ theorized Dr. Henry, while Julia added: ‘And Sarah was probably saying, ‘Oh, are you going to see your mum? This is so sweet.”‘
Reacting to the surprising news about her family history, the Notting Hill star said: ‘On the one hand, really, my mind is blown. And it’s fascinating.
“And on the other hand, there’s a part of me that, when I’m calmer, still manages to embrace the idea that my family is my family. And I prefer the name Roberts. This was a very unexpected turn of events, Dr.
Finding Your Roots airs on PBS in the US.
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