Camilla Parker Bowles Has Shocking Connection To These Celebrities

Meghan Markle may have gotten her start in Hollywood before joining the royal family and might have some big connections amongst the Hollywood elite as a result. However, she isn’t the only member of the royal family who can boast celebrity connections.

According to Express UK, Camilla Parker Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles’ wife, also boasts connections to some of the more elite celebrities in the world, through a distant ancestor—French carpenter Zacharie Cloutier, who was a part of the first wave of migration from France to Quebec. According to Genealogist William Addams Reitweiser, the Duchess is a distant relation to celebrities including Madonna, Celine Dion and Angelina Jolie.

“Camilla and Madonna are both descended from Zacharie Cloutier, who lived from 1617 to 1708, and Camilla and Celine descend from Jean Guyon, who lived from 1619 to 1694,” he said. “Both Jean and Zacharie died in Chateau-Richer, Quebec. Because of their unusual French-Canadian ancestry, they are all blood relations.”

According to Reitweiser, the actress, singers and Duchess are all ninth cousins.

They also are not the only ones to descend from Cloutier, who reportedly had 10,850 French-Canadian descendants by 1800. Other celebrities who share him as a common ancestor include singers Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, Alanis Morrissette and Meghan Trainor; comedians Jim Carey and Ricky Gervais; actors Ryan Gosling, Amy Jo Johnson and Chris Pratt and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Of course, having familial connections to some of the biggest names in Hollywood isn’t necessarily something Camilla will want to boast as she nears closer to becoming her husband’s Queen Consort. She already has a steep hill to climb in terms of public approval, which, while it has improved over the years, is still considerably low because of her role in the breakup of Prince Charles’ marriage to his first wife, Princess Diana.