Saul Goodman has been known to spin some wild tales, but even he would be hard-pressed to claim he has royal blood. And yet, that's just what acclaimed actor Bob Odenkirk discovered in his family tree.
On Tuesday's episode of the PBS' "Finding Your Roots," the "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" actor discovered that his lineage traced back to high-profile connections in France and Germany.
The show revealed that Odenkirk's fourth great-grandfather on his mother's side even fought in the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s. However, the most intriguing part of Odenkirk's familial history was his fifth great-grandfather on his father's side of the family, who was known as Friedrich Carl Steinholz. It turns out that the family's deep dark secret was that Steinholz was the illegitimate son of a duke – born out of wedlock and fathered by Friedrich Carl or Duke of Plön.
"I am descended from the Duke of Plön!" Odenkirk said to host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The pair laughed, and Gates said, "Your sixth-great grandfather was a duke!"
"Oh man, that's great!"
The Duke of Plön was a member of the European aristocracy, owning land and castles in Europe. However, the duke fathered four children out of wedlock with Odenkirk's ancestor, Maria Catharina Bien while he was married, confirming that Odenkirk's sixth great-grandmother was the duke's mistress.
"That time of history — royals and things — it's just so distant to an American," Odenkirk said of the reveal.
"Finding Your Roots" also discovered a promise of marriage between the couple, who were 20 years apart in age. The promise stated that if his current wife died, the duke would marry Bien. But shortly afterward, the duke passed away before that promise could be fulfilled.
Nonetheless, the duke's title linked Odenkirk to the other royal families in Europe like the British royal family. Royal families commonly intermarried to maintain political alliances, which helps explain how Odenkirk is distantly related to . . . King Charles III.
"That is wild!" Odenkirk said.
Gates asked the actor how it made him feel, and Odenkirk said, "Like a part of history that I didn't think I was any part of."
He went on to say, "I'm an American — not a monarchist. I don't believe in that. I feel like it's a little twisted." He continued, "I understand why society built itself around monarchs and leaders . . . but I think that we’ve gotten to a better place with democracy, and we should keep going down that road.”
But when Gates revealed that King Charles and Odenkirk are 11th cousins, Odenkirk laughed and said, "Maybe I'll change my mind on that."
"You be trashing your family and how they make a living! You oughta be ashamed of yourself! You ain't been a royal more than five minutes," Gates joked with Odenkirk.
Ultimately, Odenkirk isn't the only celebrity to be distantly related to European royalty, stars like siblings Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks are all distantly related to the British royal family.
“Finding Your Roots” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on PBS.
