Martin Luther King Jr. paid for the birth of Julia Roberts
In one of the most incredible revelations I think I’ve ever heard, it has been disclosed that the late civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife personally paid for the birth of Hollywood star Julia Roberts in an almost unbelievable piece of history.
The fact was found out by Gayle King for History Channel and A+E Networks’ HISTORYTalks, just after Roberts’ birthday on October 28th (Per Entertainment Weekly). Then, Zara Rahim, formerly a strategic advisor for Barack Obama, shared a clip of the show on Twitter, which quickly went viral.
“The King family paid for my hospital bill,” Roberts disclosed in the interview, and was impressed by King’s research, labelling it “very good”. She then explained that her parents were friends with Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta, as they ran a drama school in Atlanta and weren’t racists, a rarity for the deep south at the time.
Roberts said that her parents’ school, the Actors and Writers Workshop, was one of the few in the area that would welcome the King’s children to study. Walter Roberts then served as the teacher to Yolanda King.
“They all became friends and they helped us out of a jam,” Roberts said, noting that the Kings paid the hospital bill for when she was born as a thank-you for the Roberts’ service, as her parents couldn’t afford it.
“In the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school,” King reflected in the interview. “And Julia’s parents were welcoming, and I think that’s extraordinary, and it lays the groundwork for who Julia is.”
This year, Roberts made her return to the screen after four years in the return of the rom-com, Ticket to Paradise, where she stars alongside George Clooney as ex-spouses hoping to sabotage their daughter’s wedding in Bali, Indonesia.
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