Julia Roberts is one of the most beloved actresses on the planet . She’s a true movie star, with some of the most acclaimed and beloved films of the past three decades under her belt.
What many fans likely don’t realize, is that Julia also has ties to the late Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and if it weren’t for him — she might never have been allowed to leave the hospital after being born.
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The life and career of Julia Roberts have been incredibly well-documented.
Most fans are already aware that Julia’s first career break was in 1988’s Satisfaction , starring Justine Bateman and Liam Neeson. The film tells the story of an all-girl band and their quest to make it big.
From there, Julia went on to star in some of the ’90s most iconic and revered films.
Julia became a bonified movie star thanks to her work in Pretty Woman , StepMom , and Notting Hill . Although I myself was always partial to her role as Tinkerbell in Hook .
At the dawn of the new millennium, Julia received her first Academy Award for “Best Actress in a Leading Role.”
Erin Brockovich tells the true story of a single mother working as a legal assistant, and her fight to bring down a California power supply company accused of polluting a town’s water supply.
In 2001, Julia met the love of her life while working on the comedy/drama, ‘The Mexican’, starring Brad Pitt.
Daniel Moder was a cameraman on set and at the time of their first meeting, both he and Julia were involved with other people.
“He sorted his whole thing out, separate and apart from me,” Julia said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“And I sorted my life out, separate and apart from him . I think that’s the only reason we were able to ultimately fall in love with each other and be together.”
There’s hardly a stone that hasn’t been overturned when it comes to the life and times of Julia Roberts — or so we thought.
It has recently been brought to light that Julia and her family have special ties to the most prominent and renowned leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The news started making the rounds when Twitter user @turnandstomp posted a compilation video of Julia.
The Twitter user captioned the tweet, “Martin Luther King Jr paying for her birth is still a little known[sic] fact that sends me .”
Just days after that, in honor of Julia’s 55th birthday, strategic advisor Zara Rahim posted an old interview of Julia explaining her ties to the King family.
Julia said that the two families would never have met, were it not for the fact that her parents used to own and operate an acting school called the Actors and Writers’ Workshop .
Julia told interviewer Gayle King (no relation) that Coretta King was having difficulty finding a theater school that would accept her children.
As Gayle is quick to point out, it was incredibly uncommon for young Black and white children to attend such institutions together back in the ’60s.
Julia’s mother welcomed Coretta and Dr. King’s children without hesitation.
A friendship quickly formed and not long after that, Julia’s parents found themselves in a difficult financial situation — and were unable to pay the hospital bill for the birth of their daughter .
As a way of repaying the kindness shown to them, Corette and Dr. King paid the bill for Julia’s birth.
” They helped us out of a jam ,” Julia said matter-of-factly. Sadly, Julia never had the chance to meet Martin Luther King Jr., as he was assassinated when she was just barely one year old.
