Brooke Shields Has A Little-Known Connection To Royalty

Brooke Shields is certainly Hollywood royalty; the former model broke onto the big screen in the controversial 1978 movie "Pretty Baby" when she was only 11 years old and hasn't stopped since, winning People's Choice Awards, securing Golden Globe Nominations, and even grabbing a spot on Glamour's Women of the Year list in 2023. But as it turns out, the big screen queen is distantly related to real-life royalty too, as she can trace more than one point of lineage back to nobility.

In the early 2000s, Shields agreed to participate in the television show "Who Do You Think You Are?" The genealogy documentary series invited celebrities to take a deep dive into their ancestry with the help of historians, tracing their family tree back decades (or even centuries). As the researchers prodded into Shields's past, they discovered she was directly related to King Henry IV. Finding out was quite the feat, as the ruler served as the King of England from 1399 to 1413. Henry IV is the 15th great-granduncle of England's current monarch, Charles III, according to Britroyals.

The actress can also claim to have some ties to Louis XIV, who "Who Do You Think You Are?" researchers reported was a very distant cousin, generations upon generations removed. Known as "The Sun King," Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 until 1715, during which he famously overhauled the Palace of Versailles. It seems Brooke Shields has quite the noble relatives and a few notable aristocratic ones, too.

In "Who Do You Think You Are?" Brooke Shields divulged that her maternal grandmother, Teresa, lost her own mom at a very young age, at which point she stepped up to take care of her siblings. The "Pretty Baby" actor called her grandmother "bitter, sad and afraid," and credited these traits to the difficulties she endured as a child, per the Daily Mail. However, her paternal grandmother had a much more lavish upbringing.

Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, better known as Princess Marina Torlonia, was the Italian daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi. Though her royal lineage is somewhat of a tangled web, the Italian princess certainly came from wealth. She continued living amongst the upper echelons of society when she came to America in the 1930s. Having been born to an American mother, Mary Elsie Moore, Marina easily became well-ensconced in posh circles, attending balls, raising money for charities, and having dalliances with wealthy men.

Eventually, she married Frank Shields in 1940. The top-ranking tennis player and actor is Shields' grandfather. However, he and the heiress divorced 10 years later, in 1950. Marina didn't live out the rest of her life as a princess, at least not in the traditional sense, but the socialite enjoyed plenty of luxury both in Manhattan and abroad.

While Brooke Shields may not have been wearing tiaras like her paternal grandmother, the actor's upbringing wasn't as impoverished as that of other celebrities. Her mother, Teri Shields, who managed her career, was a former hairstylist and model before devoting herself to furthering her daughter's success. Achieving fame early on, Teri and the "Sahara" actor were likely pretty well off.

Brooke's father, Frank Shields Jr., was a well-to-do Manhattan businessman, working with big-name clients including Revlon and Estee Lauder during his work in marketing. He also started a real estate firm in Florida, Frank Shields Associates. The Sunshine State would ultimately be where he retired with his second wife and their three children. In 1965, one year after Brooke's birth and a year after the couple tied the knot, her parents divorced. However, Shields didn't become a stranger to her father and her half-siblings. Instead, she saw her dad quite regularly and enjoyed that he treated her like any other person instead of someone famous.

Shields has never lauded her royal relations, and maybe for good reason. Genealogists note that almost everyone can trace their roots back to someone noble. "Millions of people have provable descents from medieval monarchs," professor Mark Humphrys told The Washington Post. Shields just might have a few more royal branches than the rest of us.