Julia Roberts discovered she is not biologically a ‘Roberts’ due to a shocking DNA test. Watch the video here.
Beloved actress Julia Roberts, 55, discovered that she is not a Roberts after all during an appearance on PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Jan. 11. Julia’s great-grandfather, John Pendleton Roberts, was the son of a woman named Rhoda Suttle, but beyond that, there was a “gap” in her family tree. When looking at Georgia’s 1880s Census, Henry asked Julia if she noticed anyone missing, to which she replied, “A dad?” Later, the TV host revealed to the Notting Hill star that she is actually the descendant of a man named, Henry McDonald Mitchell Jr., and not of Rhoda’s late husband, Willis R. Roberts. The latter died in 1864, over a decade before John was born in 1878, therefore making it “impossible” for Julia to be a biological descendant of Willis.
“Julia, Willis Roberts could not possibly be your great-great-grandfather… he was dead,” Henry said. After hearing the shocking breakdown of her family’s lineage, Julia replied, “Oh, wait — but am I not a Roberts?” The researchers searched Douglas County, GA for records of John’s father but they found “absolutely nothing.
