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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Notable people reported to have married cousins include Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt—but the relationships range from first cousins to distant cousins many generations apart. TheWrap’s 2017 list names 13 examples; its entries are reported claims, not uniformly corroborated here by independent biographies or records.
Thirteen famous people reported to have married cousins
TheWrap’s 2017 article lists the following couples. The degree of relationship is given as that article reports it; where the article is nonspecific, that uncertainty is retained rather than filled in.
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| Person | Spouse | Relationship reported | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Einstein | Elsa Lowenthal | First cousins | Physicist |
| Rudy Giuliani | Regina Peruggi | Second cousins once removed | Politician and former New York City mayor |
| Jerry Lee Lewis | Myra Gale Brown | First cousins once removed | Musician |
| David Lean | Isabel Lean | First cousins | Film director |
| H. G. Wells | Isabel Mary Wells | First cousins | Writer |
| Charles Darwin | Emma Wedgwood | First cousins | Naturalist |
| Thomas Jefferson | Martha Wayles | Third cousins | U.S. president |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | Eleanor Roosevelt | Fifth cousins once removed | U.S. president |
| John Kerry | Julia Thorne | Distant cousins; degree not specified | Politician and former U.S. secretary of state |
| Greta Scacchi | Carlo Mantegazza | First cousins | Actor |
| Edgar Allan Poe | Virginia Clemm | Cousins; degree not specified | Writer |
| Jesse James | Zerelda Mimms | First cousins | Outlaw |
| Kevin Bacon | Kyra Sedgwick | Ninth cousins once removed | Actors; the article attributes the relationship to their appearance on PBS’s Finding Your Roots |
Source for the list and its relationship descriptions: TheWrap, 2017. The article describes its examples as a small sampling, not a complete accounting of public figures who married relatives.
What the cousin degrees mean
“First cousin” generally describes people who share grandparents. A “once removed” relationship means a generational difference: for example, one person may be the other’s parent’s cousin. The number of generations separating cousins matters, so a first-cousin marriage and a ninth-cousin-once-removed relationship are not equivalent descriptions of closeness.
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Some entries in the list do not supply an exact degree. In particular, it calls Poe and Virginia Clemm cousins without specifying how they were related, and describes Kerry and Thorne as distant cousins without a degree. Those descriptions should not be converted into more precise claims without further evidence.
Two Roosevelt and Adams examples with a historical cross-check
HISTORY.com independently states that Franklin D. Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed, in 1905. It also reports that John Adams II married his first cousin Mary Catherine Hellen in a private White House ceremony on February 25, 1828. John Adams II’s grandfather, President John Adams, married his third cousin Abigail Smith; John Quincy Adams married someone who was not a relative. These examples show differing degrees of cousinship within one prominent family, rather than a single pattern.
Source: HISTORY.com Editors, updated 2025.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How much the list establishes
TheWrap provides a useful set of reported examples, but the available corroboration is uneven: the Roosevelt relationship is also stated by HISTORY.com, while the other entries are not independently confirmed by the sources cited here. Treat the list as a starting point for historical curiosity, not as a uniformly verified biographical record or evidence that cousin marriage was universal or typical in any period.
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