Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe are distant cousins

Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe are ninth cousins, once removed, according to research released by the family-history platform MyHeritage. The finding gives a family-tree footing to a comparison fans and critics have made for years. MyHeritage published it on Wednesday, October 7.

Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe genealogy link

MyHeritage traced the connection through the women's fathers: Sweeney's father, Steven Sweeney, and Monroe's biological father, Charles Stanley Gifford. Both descend from Ezra Perry, a 17th-century settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts, who lived from about 1625 to 1689. Sweeney's line runs through Benjamin Perry, while Monroe's runs through Deborah Pope.

The relationship is very distant. The shared ancestor sits roughly ten generations back. That is far enough that few people would call the two actresses family in any everyday sense, but it is a documented genealogical connection.

Roi Mandel, MyHeritage's director of research, said the long-running comparisons between the two actresses led his team to search the company's archives for a real family bond. He described the result as a reminder that humanity is one vast, interconnected family tree.

Sweeney has leaned into Monroe-style glamour more than once. Her white Galia Lahav gown with a feathered skirt at The Housemaid premiere in Los Angeles echoed the dress Monroe wore in 1955's The Seven Year Itch.

MyHeritage previously reported that Friends co-stars Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox are distant cousins. It has also linked Taylor Swift's family tree to Louis XIV.

At ninth cousins once removed, the two women would share only a tiny fraction of their DNA, and a connection this distant can often be found between many people with colonial American roots. Still, for fans who have long called Sweeney a modern Marilyn, the genealogy gives that nickname a special meaning.

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