Julia Roberts reveals Martin Luther King Jr.’s surprising connection with her family

In an interview, Julia Roberts recently spoke about her family’s close relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The actress also revealed how the late civil rights activist made a significant move during a difficult time.

Speaking to Gayle King for the History Channel’s “HISTORYtalks” in Washington, D.C. last month, the conversation video went viral after Zara Rahim tweeted it as a video greeting for the actress.

Roberts was taken aback in the video when the famous CBS reporter brought up the subject, saying her research was “very good.”

The “Eat Pray Love” star revealed that Martin Luther King Jr. and his family paid her hospital bill while there.

To explain how the Roberts and Kings became close with each other’s families, the actress stated that Coretta Scott King called her mother and asked if her children could attend the school because it is difficult to find an educational institution that would “accept her children.”

Her mother and the activist quickly became friends.

Betty and Walter Before she was born in 1967, Lou Roberts owned and ran the Actors and Writers Workshop.

Later, Roberts explained how the activist family assisted them when her parents couldn’t afford to pay Betty Lou’s hospital bill when she was born.

The “Valentine’s Day” star also discussed how her family assisted the Kings in their search for acting schools in their area due to racial segregation at the time.

Gayle King told the actress:

“In the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in an acting school, and your parents were like, ‘Come on in.'”

There was also a time when Martin Luther’s daughter, Yolanda, enrolled in a theater school, which resulted in violence.

When the civil rights activist’s eldest daughter appeared in a play and kissed Philip DePoy on stage, the Klu Klux Klan blew up a vehicle outside the school.

DePoy wrote in a 2013 essay:

“I kissed a girl, and 10 yards away, a Buick exploded.”

Julia Roberts has been outspoken about racism since the start of her career when she stated in a 1990 interview that her hometown of Smyrna, Georgia, was “horribly racist.”