Most people don’t expect to hear the Pope and Madonna mentioned in the same sentence—let alone as distant relatives. But that’s exactly what surfaced shortly after Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV in May 2025. Genealogical research traced his family line back over 400 years, revealing that he and the Queen of Pop share a distant maternal ancestor, making them ninth cousins several times removed.
The discovery, confirmed on PBS’s Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., quickly went viral. But beyond the attention-grabbing headline, this story highlights something more important: how ancestry complicates our assumptions about identity, leadership, and legacy. Pope Leo’s family history includes not only celebrities and political figures, but also enslaved people, slaveholders, nobles, and revolutionaries—an inheritance that reflects the broader historical forces that shape many family trees, not just his.
A New Pope, a Surprising Family Tree
When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago officially became Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025, most headlines focused on his political stances and immediate call for global peace. But within days, the internet latched onto something far more unexpected: his celebrity ancestry.
Thanks to an episode of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., viewers learned that Pope Leo XIV shares distant maternal lineage with none other than Madonna. The genealogical team behind the show, including researchers from American Ancestors and the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, traced Pope Leo’s family line back to the 1500s. Through a relative born in the 1590s, Pope Leo and Madonna are ninth cousins (variously removed), a relationship that sparked widespread fascination and amusement online.
But it doesn’t stop at pop royalty. The Pope is also distantly related to a number of other public figures, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor Angelina Jolie, singer Justin Bieber, and author Jack Kerouac. His lineage reportedly includes noblemen, freedom fighters, enslaved people, and both Black and white slaveholders—a complex and layered family history that reflects broader narratives of migration, colonization, and social transformation.
The irony of a progressive Catholic leader being loosely tied to a famously provocative pop icon wasn’t lost on social media users. Jokes and memes circulated quickly, but the takeaway was clear: Pope Leo’s background defies expectations and hints at a broader, more interconnected global story.
The Politics of Pope Leo XIV – A Shift in Papal Tone
Beyond the buzz about his ancestry, Pope Leo XIV has quickly distinguished himself with a notably bold and direct political voice—one that departs from the more cautious tone often associated with past pontiffs. In just his first few days as Pope, he used his platform to deliver a clear message against global conflict. During his inaugural Sunday blessing on May 11, standing before thousands in St. Peter’s Square, he called for an immediate end to war and violence. “Never again war,” he said, while explicitly naming the ongoing crises in Ukraine, Gaza, and the persistent tensions between India and Pakistan. His call for ceasefires and diplomatic resolutions set the tone for a papacy that appears determined to confront geopolitical issues head-on.
This assertiveness isn’t new for Leo XIV. As Cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost had already shown a willingness to engage with contentious topics, particularly around U.S. politics. He publicly criticized former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, specifically the practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2018, he retweeted a thread from Cardinal Blase Cupich that condemned the policy as inhumane and un-Christian, adding moral weight to growing criticism from religious communities. “There is nothing remotely Christian, American, or morally defensible about a policy that takes children away from their parents and warehouses them in cages,” the post read—words Pope Leo endorsed and shared at the time.
By backing such statements, Pope Leo has made clear that he sees the role of the Church as not just spiritual, but moral and political. He has framed justice, compassion, and peace not as abstract ideals but as urgent imperatives that demand public accountability. This approach is resonating with a generation of Catholics and non-Catholics alike who view religious leadership as a potential force for tangible change, rather than distant symbolism. In a world increasingly shaped by ideological division and cultural polarization, Pope Leo’s early moves suggest a papacy that will not shy away from the uncomfortable intersections of faith and politics.
Why Celebrity Ancestry Grabs Attention—And Why It Matters
On the surface, learning that the Pope is distantly related to Madonna might seem like a throwaway trivia fact, good for a social media chuckle and nothing more. But the widespread reaction to this news—ranging from surprise to disbelief to fascination—reveals something deeper about how people relate to public figures, and how ancestry connects us in unexpected ways. In a world where celebrity culture dominates the media landscape, seeing figures from radically different spheres—like the Pope and a pop star—linked through bloodlines disrupts our usual assumptions. Religious leaders are often seen as occupying a moral plane far removed from the entertainment world. But uncovering this connection reminds us that no one is completely separate from the broader web of human history. These are not mythic figures—they’re people with real, tangled family trees just like everyone else.
The rise of genealogical tools, DNA testing kits, and shows like Finding Your Roots has made it easier for the public to trace connections that were previously lost to time. What’s significant about this particular case is how it humanizes the Pope without undermining his authority. Instead of diminishing his position, the revelation adds complexity. It invites people to consider how one lineage can contain contradictions: religious leaders, pop culture icons, politicians, revolutionaries, and slaveholders—all in the same family.
This doesn’t just satisfy curiosity; it reinforces a larger truth about identity. Family history isn’t a curated narrative—it’s often messy, uncomfortable, and full of surprises. In Pope Leo’s case, it includes not only celebrities and nobles, but also enslaved people and slave owners. That mix reflects the reality of many American and Latin American family trees shaped by colonization, forced migration, and centuries of social upheaval.
When people react to these discoveries with fascination, it’s not just because of who’s related to whom. It’s because these stories make power feel more human, and history feel more alive. The Pope might be a global religious leader, but he’s also someone whose family tree is a reminder of how deeply interconnected the world truly is.
What Everyday People Can Take from This – How to Explore Your Own Roots
While most of us won’t find Madonna or the Pope in our family tree, the buzz around Pope Leo XIV’s ancestry highlights a growing public interest in understanding where we come from. Genealogy isn’t just about names on a chart—it can uncover migration patterns, historical injustices, cultural shifts, and forgotten stories that shaped who we are today. You don’t need access to a team of genealogists or a PBS show to start your own journey.
Start with what you know. Talk to older relatives, gather family documents, and record names, birthplaces, and key dates. This can give you a foundational timeline. Free tools like FamilySearch.org or paid services like Ancestry.com and MyHeritage can help you build a tree and search records. Some services also offer DNA testing, which can uncover genetic connections to distant relatives or regions you didn’t know were part of your heritage. But it’s important to be clear-eyed: the results can reveal unexpected or difficult truths, such as unknown siblings, family secrets, or ancestral ties to colonialism or slavery.
If your background includes immigrant or diaspora history, connecting the dots may be more challenging due to missing records or name changes. Local historical societies, immigrant archives, and even community groups—such as the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami, which helped research Pope Leo’s ancestry—can be valuable resources. Many also offer language-specific help or regionally focused tools that make research more accurate and culturally sensitive.
Understanding your ancestry isn’t about claiming celebrity ties or building a curated identity. It’s about grounding yourself in historical context. For example, learning that your great-grandparents fled conflict or were part of a marginalized group can shift how you understand your place in the present. It can also open conversations about privilege, generational trauma, and resilience in a way that’s personal—not theoretical.
The Bigger Picture—Why Stories Like This Matter
The fascination with Pope Leo XIV’s lineage isn’t just about celebrity connections or internet gossip. It signals a broader cultural shift: people are increasingly interested in stories that humanize public figures and highlight the complexity of identity. In an age of polarized discourse and rigid labels, finding out that a Pope is distantly related to a pop icon disrupts assumptions. It forces a more nuanced view of who someone is—not just as a title or a persona, but as a person shaped by centuries of history, culture, and human messiness.
This kind of story also challenges the idea that our roles in life are predetermined by heritage. Pope Leo XIV’s family tree includes both slaveholders and enslaved people, political leaders and entertainers, the powerful and the powerless. Rather than discredit him, that range reflects something honest: we all inherit a mix of legacies—some honorable, some painful. The value lies in what we choose to do with that inheritance. In Leo’s case, it appears he’s using his platform to speak clearly on issues like peace, justice, and human rights, without pretending his past defines his present.
If there’s a takeaway here, it’s that no one’s identity is singular or static. Whether you’re a world leader, a teacher, or just someone curious about your family’s past, your story doesn’t start or end with you. We all come from somewhere, and sometimes, that “somewhere” holds surprising truths that help us better understand ourselves and each other.
So rather than dismissing stories like this as trivial, we should see them for what they are: entry points into bigger conversations—about history, humanity, and how connected we really are. The Pope’s surprising connection to Madonna may be the headline, but the real story is about lineage, legacy, and the power of knowing where you come from.
Final Thoughts — Why We Should Care About the Unexpected Connections That Shape Us
At a glance, finding out that Pope Leo XIV and Madonna are distant relatives might seem like tabloid trivia meant to stir up online reactions. But it reveals something far more relevant—how ancestry, identity, and history are not only deeply intertwined, but also often misunderstood or oversimplified. These stories matter because they remind us that human lives do not follow clean lines or exist in isolated categories. They’re shaped by centuries of movement, conflict, culture, and chance. When we dig into someone’s roots—even a global religious leader—we see that their story is not exceptional in its complexity; it’s representative of how interconnected human history actually is.
In today’s culture, we often place public figures into boxes: a pope must look and act a certain way, a celebrity must belong to a separate world, and family histories are assumed to follow narrow, predictable narratives. But real-life ancestry refuses to fit into those expectations. It can expose uncomfortable realities—like a lineage that includes both oppression and survival—or reveal connections that contradict our ideas about class, culture, or morality. In Pope Leo’s case, his background includes not only ties to famous figures but also a direct link to histories of migration, colonization, and social struggle. Recognizing that complexity isn’t just about understanding him better—it’s about seeing ourselves more clearly.
When we ignore or gloss over the complexity of identity, we miss the opportunity to talk honestly about where we come from and what we inherit. Stories like these aren’t important because of who’s related to whom, but because they challenge us to think more critically about how we define identity and leadership. They invite us to ask: how do we hold space for the contradictions in our own backgrounds? How do we use what we learn—not just to satisfy curiosity—but to inform how we move through the world?
