27 Relatives of Celebrities Say What They're Like Around Family

1.

My co-worker is a distant cousin of Vanilla Ice. She hasn't seen him in years. The last time she saw him was at a wedding when they were both older kids. She remembers him acting like a jerk and pushing somebody into a pool.

2.

My uncle is Hugh Laurie and at family events you wouldn't know he's famous, my dad still abuses him (as a joke) the same as they did when kids. I forget he's famous until I have lunch with him in public.

3.

My cousin is Dani Mathers, the playboy model who took that picture of the woman in the gym. We hate her.

4.

My aunt is Xena the Warrior princess and absolutely nothing at family gatherings. She is just our aunt. We got stopped a couple times in New Orleans by people who recognized her. Back in NZ when her show was going on some little girls would come up and want to take pics. She's the one of the nicest people to talk to and never acts like a celebrity. I have gotten to do some very cool stuff in my life which Ill never take for granted because of her kindness! Hey Lucy! I'll let you guess which one of us it is if your out there!

5.

I had an aunt that had a bit role in a commercial. It was for Lifetouch, she was the old lady lying on the ground who said "I've fallen and I can't get up!" She was a scream and must have done that line a thousand times during our family dinners. Even though everybody in North America has seen that commercial dozens of times she only got recognized a couple of times. She was once recognized in a mall and laid down on the floor and said the line, people were cheering and clapping.

6.

Matt McConaughey is my 2nd cousin. He acts normal with us but the bastard has yet to deliver me a Buick for the bully I beat up for him 38 years ago... Though he does always bring the best booze to the parties.

7.

My wife is a distant relative of Tom Hanks. It doesn't affect her at all. It affects me because she reminds me of it every time he is mentioned on the TV.

8.

Not really a celebrity, but my uncle is one of the first dozen people Bill Gates hired to start Microsoft. He's stupid rich now but spends his time being super generous with his money to family and advocating for the protection of national parks and a healthy environment. Probably the nicest and most down to earth people I've ever met. He never buys anything unnecessary if he can help it. He does all he can to make his house 100% environmentally friendly. He's pretty awesome. You'd never know that he helped change the world

9.

Related to Keanu Reeves. We have a Reeve's Ohana gathering every year in Hawaii and he never comes. Which I don't blame him at all, his dad was not a good father so I assume, besides being a busy actor, he doesn't come because that burned the bridges with our family. My dad sometimes mentions Keanu when the reunions happen, about how he doesn't visit. It's not in a bitter way or anything, just sometimes the little cousins ask. I haven't met all my family in Hawai'i yet cause I live in the mainland, but I do know at least a few people are salty about it. Other than that, my cousins look up to him and get excited when he's in a movie. Even if the kids aren't allowed to watch cause of violence they see a movie poster and look all awe-struck. So cute.

10.

My sister's best friend is Ryan Reynolds' niece. She went to the wedding with Blake Lively. Ryan came to our school one time, A+ guy and he is still close to his family.

11.

Spouse is related to David Tennant. I did not know this until after we were married (spouse born in America). Not impacted life at all except I got to meet him during my first trip to London. Their family scored us tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and we saw David Tennant and Cathrine Tate after the show. Nothing bad to say about either of them; they were both lovely and effusive and Tennant gave us both a hug even though neither of us had ever met him before. Spouse had a brief chat about mutual acquaintances in the family and then we left.

12.

Megan Fox is my first cousin once removed (her mother and my grandfather are brother and sister). She's six years older than me, so there are plenty of pictures of us playing together while growing up, but once she got to the point of puberty, she quickly shifted into modeling and moved from Tennessee to Florida to pursue it. She then got into movies and as you know, made it rather big. The last time she was in town to visit was about twelve years ago. She came for Christmas and everything seemed normal until she whipped out the stack of headshots she had brought to sign for us to take to back to our friends and such. She did make it a point to call my grandfather when he had his heart attack back in 2014, so not all is lost in fame. The headshots thing was just a tad comical.

13.

Apparently Janet Horne, the last witch to be executed in Britain is my 4th Great Grandmother. Only recently just found out after her name was scored out of the old family bible (tree), my 105 year old great grandmother was not allowed to talk about her when she was younger.

14.

My uncle is Peter Weller,AKA Robocop, every time we go out to dinner he tells these really cool stories about all the other famous people he has met and how he's friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger and it's really cool to listen to his stories for hours on end

15.

Related to Kings of Leon through marriage, pretty cool group of guys. We have a family reunion every May and hang out and play horseshoes etc. just like everyone else. It's kind of funny because even here in my tiny little town they still act like they're going to be bombarded by fans, but literally no one recognizes them.

16.

My Uncle is Steve Smith AKA Red Green, the Canadian handyman comedy show from the '90's. We used to all gather in the 90's and 00's when our generation had wedding season. He was always the life of the party without ever trying. If there was a lull in conversation he'd pipe in with something hysterical and have the whole table laughing. Never tried, he was just a natural and would never interrupt anyone else. He's a very kind and wonderful guy. We'd go to tapings of the show and would howl, not only at the show but at the "countrified" studio audience. It was all in good fun. I think the only effect it had at gatherings were on our very excited SO's meeting him for the first time. We only gather once in awhile now as he's winding down a bit - he's in his 70's now and enjoying semi-retirement (still doing shows). The fam tells me we bear a strong resemblance which is nice.

17.

My first cousin on my father's side is James Roday. He has always been the type of guy, even as a kid, we all knew he was going to be famous. He's just always had that "it" factor, so when he became famous those of us in the immediate family just saw it as an end to the means. The only uncomfortable thing to happen at a family function was at my grandmother's funeral. It was obviously a very emotional time, but my brother's wife at the time didn't see it as such and was taking any opportunity to snap as many selfies and candid "Look at me with Sean from Psych" photos as possible. He was very tactful about it though and graciously granted her as much as he could handle until my brother made her chill the fuck out. Jamie is a good dude, man. Definitely one of the people in my life that I am most proud of, because he earned every bit of fame and fortune he has received all the while staying an incredibly humble guy.

18.

My wife is childhood friends with family of Viggo Mortensen. She got to hang out with him after he shot Lord of the Rings but before it was released. Said he was a very cool guy, extremely laid back, and fun to have a beer with. Her friend spent her childhood hanging out with him on summer vacations and has yet to have a bad thing to say about him.

19.

Hey, something I can meaningfully contribute to! My uncle is Sinbad (the comedian/actor). He is married to my biological aunt on my dad's side, so I am not his blood relation, but his kids and wife are blood related to me. It actually hasn't. We go on vacations with them every summer, and have for the past 6 or so years. We didn't for a while when him and my aunt were separated, but after they got back together we see that family at least once a year. Just got back from a vacation with them on Sunday actually, we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise. At first it was a little annoying having to stop every couple minutes because someone asked for a picture, but eventually he stopped posing for pictures while with us. He just says "sorry, I'm with my family" now. Nothing terribly exciting, but he has been famous since I was born, so I didn't get a before and after experience. The coolest thing was definitely going to Disney/universal with him. We got the VIP treatment and skipped every line. We rode dueling dragons probably 5-7 times back to back. 3 of us barfed, it was great.

20.

I'm relatively closely related to JK Rowling, and to be honest it doesn't affect family gatherings at all. Either people whisper about her from afar, or go up and have a conversation with her. Most people don't make a big deal of it and she does the same and just chats to anyone that speaks to her. The biggest reaction I ever get is when someone finds out I'm related to her haha!

21.

My grandfather was Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts (Charlie Brown). I don't really know how it affected my family gatherings because my family hasn't been together for a long time for other reasons. But I do know that for a few members of the family the comics are really important to them and they really pride themselves in their involvement with them.

22.

My uncle is Dr. Demento. He's a really cool guy. Insanely knowledgeable about music and music history. He is totally cool at family gatherings.

23.

My old boss is related to Rachel McAdams. They're cousins. She said their grandma always compared the two growing up. "Well Rachel is a really good figure skater, why aren't you?" .. "Well Rachel is a movie star, why do you manage a shoe store".. she hates Rachel. Lol

24.

My ex-wife is related to Richard Ramirez, yes, The Night Stalker. He come up at EVERY single family gathering big or small. They would talk about him for hours. Same stories same reactions. As the years went by he slowly started to disappear from the conversations. Then he goes and makes national news when he died. We were already divorced when it happened but that did not stop her family from reaching out to me and telling me, in detail, all about his life and death. It still comes up every time I come across any of them. Can't tell if its pride or sorrow.

25.

My neighbor when I was 12 was the guitarist for Matchbox 20 around when they were all over the radio. My dad plays a lot of guitar so he would go over and they would play for a few hours and chill. Got to meet the rest of the band and they were all really cool down to earth guys.

26.

My cousin is Dennis Russel Davies, a multi-grammy award winning conductor who works with phillip glass... When my Great Aunt died (His mother) he sort of took over as the 'showrunner' of the funeral... If youve ever heard Phillip Glass, you know some of his pieces can be a bit "ridiculous". Well Dennis decided to play some of his more dramatic choir based pieces for the procession which sound like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDG6scR0yso ... I remember as a kid looking over and seeing my mom trying to comfort my aunt who appeared to be hunched over bawling... nope... she was laughing her ass off which of course started a chain reaction of laughter through the entire church pew. I still to this day remember dennis looking down on our part of the family in disgust... so yeah... hes kind of pretentious but an amazing dude.

27.

My uncle played for the Toronto Maple Leafs as a goalie in the 80s and 90s (then other NHL teams a bit later). He stayed pretty down to Earth about it. Realistically, he was never incredibly famous. He was just part of our family. He moved to Orlando a while ago and had a falling out with some people. I haven't seen him or his daughters in probably a decade or more. Now, he only comes up because fathers of people I know recognise my unique last name and don't know why. A few times people asked right away if me and my uncle are related but it seems those times have passed.