Let's be honest. You never know who will get your heart racing or who will eventually accompany you down the aisle. While some people have met through friends or connected with someone at work, others have looked a little closer to home. These celebrities happened to marry someone in their extended family — some more extended than others.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Kevin Bacon
Spouse's Name: Kyra Sedgwick
How They're Related: Distant cousins
When playing the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the actor's wife, Kyra Sedgwick, doesn't have to look far. That's because the couple of more than 30 years found out they are distant cousins when they tracked their genealogy on the PBS show Finding Your Roots. So technically, Kyra is no degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. She wins.
Rudy Giuliani
Spouse's Name: Regina Peruggi (first wife)
How They're Related: Second cousins
The former New York City mayor has been married three times, the first time to his second cousin. The two separated in the mid-1970s, but didn't divorce until 1982 — the same year he married newscaster Donna Hanover. He later married Judith Nathan, but the couple divorced in 2019.
Albert Einstein
Spouse's Name: Elsa Lowenthal
How They're Related: First cousin on his mother's side, and second cousin on his father's side
While Albert Einstein was married to his first wife, he began a relationship with Elsa Lowenthal, who was instrumental in helping him with his famous work in physics. Not only did Einstein marry his cousin, but she was also his double cousin: The two were related on both sides of Einstein's family.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Spouse's Name: Eleanor Roosevelt
How They're Related: Fifth cousins (once removed)
Though the two both grew up as Roosevelts, they grew up on different sides of the Roosevelt family and only met briefly as children. The two were reacquainted as adults at a White House ball hosted by Eleanor's uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt.
Jesse James
Spouse's Name: Zerelda Mimms
How They're Related: First cousins
Zerelda Mimms' mother was the sister of James' father, making the two first cousins. Mimms was even named for James' mother. The couple was engaged for nine years before they married in 1874, while the James gang was in full swing.
John Adams
Spouse's Name: Abigail Smith
How They're Related: Third cousins
Though they had known one another since they were children, it wasn't until John saw Abigail at a party when she was 17 that he saw her through different eyes. Three years later, the couple was married and not long after that they welcomed their first child. And though the couple spent many of their years apart, as John became increasingly involved in the Revolutionary War, they remained close through correspondence. They reportedly exchanged more than 1,000 letters.
