It’s an extraordinary story.
Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts turned 55 this week, leading to a fascinating interview with the Hollywood icon to go viral.
Twitter user Zara Rahim shared a snippet of Roberts in conversation with American journalist Gayle King last month in which the actress spoke about her family’s connection with social activist Martin Luther King Jr.
In the clip, the Erin Brockovich star talks about how King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King paid for her hospital bill when she was born.
This was after the King family had become close with the actress’ parents – Betty and Walter Roberts – because the latter pair ran a theatre school in Atlanta that Coretta and Martin’s children attended.
Today is Julia Roberts birthday! 55 years ago MLK and Coretta Scott King paid for her parents hospital bill after she was born. Can’t stop thinking about this since I read it. Here she is talking about it with @GayleKing https://t.co/5HvpNSUIYb pic.twitter.com/147x6d807W
— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) October 28, 2022
“My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop and one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids,” Julia recounted.
“My mom was like, ‘Sure come on over.’ And so, they just all became friends, and they helped us out of a jam.”
It has also been reported that in 1965, a Ku Klux Klan member blew up a car outside one of Betty and Walter Roberts’ plays in response to King Jr’s daughter Yolanda being cast in a play where she kissed a white actor.
“In the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school,” Gayle King said in response to Julia’s comments.
“And your parents were like ‘come on in’. I think that’s extraordinary.”
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