Family reunions should be a lot more interesting this summer as the new year brings new revelations about celebrity relatives. We all know R&B star Ciara has some major NFL muscle in her family with husband, quarterback Russell Wilson. But on a recent episode of the hit PBS genealogy series, Finding Your Roots, she was surprised to learn that she’s related to another major league athlete.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, she is looking at former New York Yankees Derek Jeter,” host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shared with the seriously shocked singer.
“What the world?!” she exclaimed when she learned that the former Yankees shortstop is her cousin.
“Ciara and Derek share a long identical stretch of DNA on their 14th chromosome, DNA which we know Derek inherited from his mother. When we compared their DNA to the DNA of others who have been in the series, we found a match for each of them,” Gates explained.
On Tuesday, the “Level Up” singer shared a clip from the show on Instagram. She captioned the post, “The moment I learned @DerekJeter was my cousin! Crazy! Thank you, @drhenrylouisgates, for such an incredible experience! This was a dream come true to learn about my family genealogy!”
But she wasn’t the only celeb to be surprised with a new relative this week. On Tuesday’s episode of The View, host Whoopi Goldberg learned that she shares DNA with former NFL star Tony Gonzalez. During an appearance to reflect on ten years of Finding Your Roots, Gates dropped the news that Goldberg and Gonzalez are actually cousins.
“On the first series, I did a number of Black celebrities, including Whoopi, and we didn’t have the sophisticated tests that we now use for DNA at that time,” Gates said. “You all know about DNA cousins? You have a DNA cousin, dear. Tony Gonzales is your DNA cousin.”
And Goldberg’s The View co hosts didn’t waste time letting her know what they think of her handsome new kin.
“He is smoking!” said Sunny Hostin. “ Wow, I want to come over for your family dinner,” added Sara Haines.
Check out more surprising celebrity family connections here.
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