Bob Odenkirk Isn't Keen On The Monarchy Despite His King Charles Connection

Seconds after "Better Call Saul" actor Bob Odenkirk expressed his disdain for the British monarchy, he was informed that he was, in fact, a distant relative to those very royals. While on an episode of "Finding Your Roots," a PBS show in which celebrities learn about familial connections of others and their own, Odenkirk responded to the news of his over-the-pond relatives in the only way a comedian would: a giant guffaw. 

"Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. began the conversation by asking Odenkirk what he thought about the monarchy, to which Odenkirk replied with less than stellar reviews. "I'm an American. I'm not a monarchist. I don't believe in that, you know? I feel like it's a little twisted," Odenkirk said during his interview.

 "Oh, really?" Gates responded incredulously. With a smirk, the PBS host informed Odenkirk that he, born in 1962 in Berwyn, Illinois, and King Charles III, born in 1948 in Buckingham Palace, were 11th cousins. 

Bob Odenkirk's connection to the royal family began in Plön, a town in modern-day Germany, in the mid-1700s. The "Finding Your Roots" researchers noticed something interesting about the records connected to his fifth great-grandfather, Friedrich Carl Steinholz: his marriage record had no mother or father listed. Intrigued by this unusual omission, the PBS team dug even further into the archives of Plön to find who these mystery parents could be. 

The researchers found a death certificate that seemed to be the missing link they were after. "Maria Catharina Bein, although she died unmarried, still she leaves behind from her former relationship with the last deceased Duke of Plön," Odenkirk read on the show, "the following children: her deceased daughter, Maria Carolina Steinholz, Friedrich Carl Steinholz, Christian Carl Steinholz, August Wilhelm Steinholz." This means Maria Catharina Bein was Odenkirk's sixth great-grandmother, and his sixth great-grandfather was the Duke of Plön. 

The European aristocrat had the four listed children with Bein while he was married to another woman. But not all romance was lost: The PBS team also found a "marriage promise" written by the duke, expressing his intentions to marry Bein if his current wife died. This connection to the 18th-century duke would be the link between the Illinois-born actor and King Charles III, per PBS.

Bob Odenkirk had prefaced his negative feelings about the monarchy by saying he knew why they existed throughout generations of multiple societies and civilizations. However, the actor said he felt that democracy was a better framework for modern society and that the royal institution of today is a relic of the past. After "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed Odenkirk that he and the British king were 11th cousins, the midwestern native let out a long, hearty laugh. "Well, maybe I'll change my mind on that," he riffed. 

After such a principled stance on the monarchy, Gates couldn't resist the opportunity to tease Odenkirk a bit. "Through the duke [of Plön], you and King Charles III are 11th cousins. Now, there you be trashing your family, how they make a living, you oughta be ashamed of yourself. You ain't been royal more than five minutes, and you're already out here complaining," Gates joked to a laughing Odenkirk.

The comedian and actor's discovery puts him in the ranks of other Hollywood elite connected to the monarchy, including TV personality Ellen Degeneres, model Cara Delevingne, and other celebrities you might not have known have royal ancestors, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Brooke Shields, and Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Suddenly, the distance between the states and the U.K. across the pond doesn't seem quite so vast.