Madonna, Bieber, Jolie, Clinton, and Trudeau have one thing in common, and it’s not fame. Any guesses? Well, before we tell you what links them together, let us take you through Madonna’s Instagram story that might give you a hint. The ‘Queen of Pop’ recently shared an Instagram Story that has left the Internet in disbelief – even we did a double check. She shared a black and white photo with her father and captioned it: “Silvio! We’re related to the Pope! Strike A Pose!”
And she wasn’t joking when she said it. Pope Leo XIV, who commenced his papacy on May 8 this year, is indeed her distant relative.
But, how do we know about the star, who was excommunicated thrice, and of course, others? A New York Times report by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr revealed that the singer is a distant relative of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV. The discovery was made through a joint project between The Times, American Ancestors, and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, which traced the Pope’s family roots on both sides. The study further found out that Pope Leo had distant relatives in parts of Europe, such as Italy and Spain, who had later relocated to Quebec in the 1650s.
Louis Boucher de Grandpre, in this regard, was one of Pope’s distant Canadian relatives through whom Madonna’s relation had been found. This “revelation” prompted many social media users to draw pop culture parallels and humorous quips referencing Madonna’s career.
“Like a Prayer!”, “Pope and Pop artist”, “Reconciliation appointment or exorcism??”, “Papa does indeed preach”, “they look like twins!”, and “Madonna – Like a Prayer ft Leo XIV” are some on our “never-ending” list.
The study further named numerous other celebrities, namely Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton and even Justin Trudeau, to be linked to the first American pope via their common ancestry.
And, in case you missed Madonna’s 2022 post – or don’t remember it, here’s a recap. Madonna, who has a complex history with the Vatican, publicly appealed to Pope Francis, Leo XIV’s predecessor, to discuss “some important matters”. “I’ve been excommunicated 3 times. It doesn’t seem fair,” she wrote on X (when it was called Twitter and had a blue bird logo) back in 2022. She added that she is a “good Catholic” and that it has been a “few decades since her last confession”.