He is a prince raised in London, the son of the first heir to the British throne.

She is an actress born in California, the daughter of a yoga instructor and a former television lighting director.

But despite their different upbringings, Prince Harry and his American girlfriend Meghan Markle have more in common than we previously believed.

A genealogical investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found that the famous pair are actually distant cousins, related through a late 15th Century ancestor of the Queen Mother.

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The publication reports the Suits star's connection to the Royal Family comes as a result of her family's ancestry dating all the bay back to High Sheriff of County Durham Ralph Bowes - an ancestor of Markle from 15 generations ago.

Bowes' family seat was Streatlam Castle situated in the North East of England and his grandson Christopher Hussey moved to America in 1632, helping to found Nantucket, Massachusetts. Fast forward a few years and boom, Meghan Markle.

Meanwhile, Bowes's great-grandson Sir George Bowes became a member of parliament during the reign of Charles II and to cut a very long story short, Prince Harry came along.

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What's more bizarre is the fact that Prince Harry's ancestor, Henry VIII, reportedly executed a relative of Markle.

A new report, via The Sunday Telegraph, claims that back when Henry VIII was reigning in Britain, there was a plot orchestrated by a man named Lord Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford and the great-great-great grandfather to Christopher Hussey (see above), to attempt to overthrow the monarch. As a result, Henry VIII had him beheaded.

Now, before everyone stars yelling 'incest' at Harry and Meghan's shared lineage, we'd like to point out that if you go far back enough to the Middle Ages, you're probably related to the man sitting next to you on the bus or your colleague sat opposite to you.

A genetic survey in 2013 found that all Europeans living today are related to the same set of ancestors who lived 1,000 years ago. And you don't have to go back much further in time to to find that everyone in the world is related to each other.

Who would've though it, ey?

The news comes days after Channel 4's aired a documentary looking into the Californian star's life, titled When Harry Met Meghan: A Royal Romance.

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Katie O'Malley
Site Director

Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.