Millions of people around the world will be watching as Charles is crowned king of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. And it’s fair to say that a huge number of them could claim some degree of kinship with the new monarch as distant cousins at least. It’s how family trees work.
Celebrity guests on the BBC’s genealogy TV show Who Do You Think You Are often find out they’re descended from royalty. In 2021, British soap opera actor Danny Dyer learned he was descended from Edward III. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, is related to Richard III.
Indeed it happens enough on these programmes that it led a BBC royal correspondent to write a piece about whether we are all related to royalty.
