Bob Odenkirk and King Charles III. Getty Photographs (2)
Bob Odenkirk had no clue that he comes from a line of royals.
In a clip of an upcoming episode of Discovering Your Roots, obtained by Rolling Stone, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. defined to Odenkirk, 61, that he’s King Charles III’s eleventh cousin.
“That’s loopy,” the Higher Name Saul actor mentioned within the video.
Previous to his revelation, Gates Jr., 73, shared that he traced Odenkirk’s royal roots again 5 generations to Friedrich Carl Steinholz, Odenkirk’s nice grandfather who was born in Germany in 1755. Steinholz was born out of wedlock to Maria Chatharina Bein and the Duke of Plön.
“I’m an American. I’m not a monarchist. I don’t consider in that,” Odenkirk quipped. “, I really feel prefer it’s a bit of twisted. I perceive why society constructed itself round monarchs and leaders, and so they handed them down by means of generations.”
Odenkirk went on to say he understands that monarchy “goes by means of each society,” however he believes we’ve gotten to a “higher place with democracy.”
Odenkirk added that “we should always maintain taking place that street” earlier than joking that he may “change [his] thoughts” after discovering that he was associated to royalty.
Gates Jr. has beforehand revealed loopy connections to celebrities and historic figures.
In January 2023, Edward Norton appeared on a season 9 episode of Discovering Your Roots the place he realized that Pocahontas was truly his twelfth great-grandmother.
“I perceive that was household lore [you heard growing up],” Gates Jr. instructed Norton, 54, on the time. “Properly, it’s completely true.”
Gates Jr. defined that Norton’s household lineage may very well be traced again to John Rolfe, an English settler who married Pocahontas. Norton was amazed by the shock connection.
“That is about way back to you may go except you’re a Viking,” the Unimaginable Hulk actor gushed. “Makes you understand what a small piece of the entire human story you’re.”
In the identical episode, Norton additionally found that his third great-grandfather, John Winstead, as soon as owned slaves in keeping with the 1850 census of North Carolina.
“The quick reply is this stuff are uncomfortable, and you have to be uncomfortable with them, all people ought to be uncomfortable with it,” Norton mentioned. “It’s not a judgment on you and your individual life, nevertheless it’s a judgment on the historical past of this nation and it must be acknowledged in the beginning, after which it must be contended with.”
