[imagesource: Wikimedia Commons]

Fans of Julia Roberts have been recirculating a seemingly unbelievable historical fact that connects her to a famous pair of civil rights leaders.

The actor celebrated her 55th birthday on Friday, which was when some people on social media brought up a conversation that Julia had with journalist Gayle King in September.

In the video, King asked Roberts to explain what happened the day she was born and reveal who paid for her hospital bill.

It just so happened to be the iconic Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King:

Image: Library of Congress

Roberts said her parents, Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, could not afford to pay the hospital bill after she was born in 1967.

Luckily, through their Atlanta-based theatre school, Actors and Writers Workshop, her parents became friends with the civil rights leaders, who later helped them out of the jam.

NBC News featured a tweeted clip of the A&E Networks and History Channel’s HISTORYTalks event in Washington, D.C.:

Today is Julia Roberts birthday! 55 years ago MLK and Coretta Scott King paid for her parents hospital bill after she was born. Can’t stop thinking about this since I read it. Here she is talking about it with @GayleKing https://t.co/5HvpNSUIYb pic.twitter.com/147x6d807W

— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) October 28, 2022

Julia’s unique backstory has surfaced before:

Last year, the digital publication Obsev wrote about the racism and bigotry Bredemus and her husband faced for allowing Black children to attend their acting school.

As Obsev reported, one of those children was the Kings’ daughter Yolanda King, who died in 2007 at age 51.

Basically, Yolanda and co. had major respect for the Roberts family:

“Mr. Roberts was so imposing,” she said at the time. “I loved him, but I was also a little intimidated by him, too. And — but he was — I mean, he taught me so much, and he and Mrs. Roberts, about the work, and just about living and being really open, grabbing life and making the best of it.”

She met Julia Roberts for the first time at a workshop in Atlanta and said that it was like “an extended family” where everyone got along with no problems, despite racial differences.

So yeah, without the King family, Julia Roberts might not have been who she is today.

[source:nbcnews]