Obama’s Surprising Ties to Brad Pitt—and Beyond
During a 2008 appearance on The View, Barack Obama dropped a surprising family fact: he’s distantly related to Hollywood icon Brad Pitt. Asked about their connection, Obama chuckled, “I guess we’re ninth cousins, something removed—or something,” then quipped, “I think he got the better-looking side of the gene pool.”
This curious link traces back to Edwin Hickman, their shared ancestor who died in Virginia in 1769. And while their connection may sound bizarre, it’s far from rare in the celebrity-political family tree.
History is full of unexpected genealogical ties: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Madonna and Pope Leo XIV, and now—Obama and Pitt.
Even more surprising, Hillary Clinton is a ninth cousin of actress Angelina Jolie, Pitt’s former spouse. Their common ancestor, Jean Cusson, died in Quebec in 1718. Clinton also shares distant bloodlines with singers like Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion, and Madonna through her French-Canadian heritage.
Genealogist Christopher Child summed it up best: “It shows that lots of different people can be related—people you wouldn’t necessarily expect.”
In the end, digging into ancestry reveals how small—and strange—the world really is.
