Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey discover they have some surprising relatives
Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey are the two latest celebrities to discover that their family tree is bigger than they knew.
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — At this point, it seems like all the famous people in the world may somehow be related.
Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey are the two latest celebrities to discover that their family tree is bigger than they knew.
The pair of actresses are featured on the February 25 episode of “Finding Your Roots,” where the host Henry Louis Gates Jr. shared the news that they both have some surprising distant cousins.
Gates told Lynskey she has a distant cousin in musician and filmmaker Questlove.
“He’s your DNA cousin,” Gates told her. “Your father and Questlove, as well as Questlove’s mother, share a long identical segment of DNA on your 15th chromosome.”
The “Yellowjackets” star declared that she was “very excited.”
“He’s such a sweet guy,” Lynskey said of her newfound relative. “That’s incredible.”
Messing discovered that her distant cousin is politician Bernie Sanders, which caused her to declare, “Are you kidding me? Bernie Sanders?!”
“No way! Oh my gosh,” Messing said. “That is mind-blowing.”
Gates is a noted historian, educator and filmmaker. Both Sanders and Questlove have appeared on past episodes of “Finding Your Roots.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
