Pope Leo XIV Is a Distant Cousin of Madonna

A tracing of Pope Leo XIV’s family tree has revealed that the first American pontiff is a distant cousin of several North American celebrities, including the pop star Madonna (not to be confused with that Madonna). In addition to the Queen of Pop, the Pope’s distant relatives include Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, and Jack Kerouac.

As reported in The New York Times by noted genealogist Henry Louis Gates Jr., much of Pope Leo XIV’s heritage is Creole from his ancestors in New Orleans, though he also shares French, Italian, and Spanish roots. Some of his French ancestors moved to Quebec in the 1650s, before eventually settling in America (predominantly in New Orleans).

The research identified a common French-Canadian ancestor, Louis Boucher de Grandpre, connecting Pope Leo to a long list of notable figures, which also includes Angelina Jolie and former Canadian Prime Ministers Pierre and Justin Trudeau.

Pope Leo was born Robert Francis Prevost on September 14th, 1955, on the South Side of Chicago in Bronzeville.

Madonna’s link to Pope Leo comes three years after she publicly requested a meeting with his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, to discuss her alleged three excommunications from the Catholic Church. The singer has a contentious history with the Vatican, which famously condemned her 1989 video for “Like a Prayer.” Its depiction of burning crosses drew widespread backlash and led Pope John Paul II to call for boycotts against her.