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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Erum Salam

The unlikely bond between Julia Roberts and Martin Luther King Jr

A side by side photo of Julia Roberts and family portrait of Martin Luther King Jr
Roberts first disclosed the connection to Gayle King in September during an event in Washington DC. Composite: AP, Getty

An astounding but little-known fact about Julia Roberts has resurfaced after her recent 55th birthday prompted a consultant to call attention to a link between the actor’s birth and revered civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Roberts, whose birthday was 28 October, first shared the story about the day she was born with journalist Gayle King this September in Washington DC during a HISTORYTalks live event for the History Channel. That day, she said during the talk, the activist known to many simply as MLK – as well as his fellow civil rights champion and wife Coretta Scott King – paid off the hospital bill for her birth because Roberts’s parents were poor and couldn’t afford it.

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