Top 10 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Related to Royalty

These celebrity siblings are both distant relations of Queen Elizabeth II, by way of their father, Stephen Gyllenhaal. The Gyllenhaal family descended from a noble family in Sweden, but they also have connections to British royalty. Both Maggie and Jake can call King Edward III of England their ancestor, who ruled England from 1327 to 1377. Because of this lineage, they are actually 19th cousins of the Queen. Do you think they’ll be invited to the upcoming royal wedding?

Not only do these brothers have links to the nobility thanks to their father being a third cousin to 3rd Baronet, Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, but they’re also related to the heir apparent to the British throne! That’s right. Ralph Fiennes, who’s played a pharaoh, a duke and various lords on-screen, and younger brother Joseph, who’s played both an earl and a mythological Greek king in film, are eighth cousins of Charles, Prince of Wales! How so? Because they’re both descendants of King James II of Scotland. Who would have thought?

Johnny Depp has not been acting very regal in the late 2010s. And while he may have been the subject of scandal, one genealogist has made a connection between him and the British royal family - despite his bad behavior. Dr. Nick Barratt claims that Depp and Queen Elizabeth II are cousins 20 times removed. That may be quite a stretch – in fact, Barrett admits that proving the link between the two families with certainty will never be possible considering you’d have to go back more than 500 years to make the link, but it’s still interesting to us!

Another celeb who may or may not get invited to the next big royal event- Hilary Duff has been called the American entertainer with the closest connection to the British royal family. FindMyPast.com called her "America's most royal celebrity” because of her family’s link to British Army Officer Alexander Spotswood. As he was a descendant of Edward III, she is actually considered the Queen’s 18th cousin. Is there a teen movie where Hilary Duff finds out she comes from royalty? Because there definitely should be- you know you’d watch it.

Brad Pitt can allegedly trace his family’s lineage all the way back to the 12th century and King Henry II. That makes him a very distant relative of the current royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II. You know who else can do that? Paris Hilton! And if we’re really getting technical, Pitt is actually her 26th cousin, twice removed. Does that mean that Hilton and Pitt are related as well? It seems so! Pitt definitely has the dashing good looks of a prince, so we can’t say this one surprises us too much.

Just like her ex, Brad Pitt, Angie also has a connection to the royals, as she is also the 26th cousin of the current queen of England. Her family can be traced back to King Philip II of France, whose daughter was Marie of France, Duchess of Brabant. That means her kids with Pitt must be the ... okay that’s not the kind of math we can do. To top it all off, in 2014 Queen Elizabeth II decided to name Jolie as an honorary dame, which is the female equivalent of being named a knight – but we don’t think it was a favor to the family!

While most of our entries today are American entertainers, here’s one notable exception. You probably won’t even be that surprised to find out that English actor Hugh Grant has a connection to the royal family. We mean doesn’t it just seem like he would? Grant is actually a distant descendant of the Tudor family, going back as far as Henry VII, who was the first Tudor king. And it’s actually more like a double connection because James IV, King of Scotland is also part of his family tree.