This Royal Couple May Be Cousins—Yes, Really!

Lorna Roberts/ShutterstockFor elementary school teachers, it was a go-to assignment. Year in and year out, kids would make a poster board plastered with photo cutouts speckling the outcrop of something ancestral and arboreal—the family tree. It required a bit of research, but it always proved to provide each kid with a little bit more insight into their family history and a little more experience with magic markers and glue sticks.

But not all family trees are created equal. When it comes to the British royal family tree, things are a bit more complicated; their research database is thoroughly documented because, well, they’ve ruled an entire country for centuries. But even for the House of Windsor, distant relatives may fall into anonymity as time wears on. But it still might come as a surprise to find out that Prince Harry and his girlfriend Meghan Markle might just be cousins, according to the Daily Mail.

The two are connected through a 15th century relative of the Queen Mother. Ralph Bowes, who lived from 1480-1516, was a High Sheriff of County Durham, and held a seat at Streatlam Castle. From Bowes, the tree branched off, with the Bowes name persisting on Harry’s side all the way to Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, whose full name was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. The Bowes name lasted only until the late 16th century on Meghan Markle’s side of the tree. Markle’s connection is on her father’s side.

[Source: Daily Mail]