Julia Roberts and Martin Luther King, Jr. have a surprising connection. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, paid the hospital bill for Roberts’ parents when she was born. Roberts, 55, has shared the story in past interviews, but the fact went viral over the weekend as the Pretty Woman star celebrated her birthday.
Back on Oct. 21, Twitter user @turnandstomp tweeted, “Martin Luther King Jr paying for her birth is still a little-known fact that sends me.” The user later added a correction, noting that Coretta also paid. The initial tweet went viral, and some had to wonder if there was any truth to this claim.
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It turns out it is true. On Oct. 28, consultant Zara Rahim tweeted a video of Roberts sharing the story with CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King (who is not related to King) about her connection to the civil rights icon. “The day you were born, who paid for the hospital bill?” Gayle King asked Roberts during HISTORYTalks, an event A&E and the History Channel hosted in Washington, D.C. in September. “Her research is very good. The King family paid for my hospital bill,” Roberts replied. The Oscar winner later said that her parents could not afford the hospital bill.
The Kings didn’t randomly choose to help her parents, Walter and Betty Roberts, when Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. Her parents owned the Atlanta theater school called Actors and Writers Workshop and allowed the King children to attend. Unlike other children’s theater groups in Atlanta at the time, the Roberts’ group was integrated.
“One day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids,” Roberts recalled, reports the Washington Post. “My mom was like, ‘Sure, come on over.’ And so they just all became friends and they helped us out of a jam.”
Bernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, confirmed the story was true on Twitter. “Grateful that [Julia Roberts] shared this story with [Gayle King] and that so many people have been awed by it,” Bernice wrote. “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence.”
Although this was the first time Roberts spoke publicly about King paying for her parents’ hospital bill, she has talked about her connection to the Kings in the past. In 2001, Roberts, Betty Roberts, and King’s daughter Yolanda King all told CNN about how their families were close in the 1960s. In 2013, author Phillip DePoy wrote an essay about how Walter Roberts’ decision to let him kiss Yolanda on stage in a play caused an uproar because DePoy is white.
Roberts can now be seen in theaters in Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney. Her next movie is Leave the World Behind, a thriller written by Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail and co-starring Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke. The movie will be released on Netflix.
