Turns out Dakota Johnson is Marilyn Monroe’s lost cousin.
After The Lost Daughter actress was confirmed to be starring in the short film Flesh Impact as the Hollywood legend, scientists revealed that the pair are distantly related.
“Their shared ancestry traces back to Richard [Tydings] and Charity Tydings, 17th-century English settlers in Maryland,” read a press release from MyHeritage. “Marilyn descends from their daughter Pretitia, while Dakota and [her father] Don Johnson descend from her younger sister, Mary.”
In other words, Johnson and Monroe are ninth cousins three times removed, according to a family tree created by the online genealogy platform.
As for what inspired the MyHeritage team to dig into a familial link between the two?
“With a new film bringing Marilyn Monroe back into the spotlight, our research team wanted to see whether there was a deeper family connection,” MyHeritage researcher Naama Lanski said in a statement. “Discovering that Dakota Johnson and Marilyn Monroe are related turns the casting into a real-life family story.”