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Julia Roberts Shares That Martin Luther King Jr. & Coretta Scott King Paid Hospital Bill For Her Birth
A Julia Roberts interview has gone viral, with the actress explaining her ties to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
An interview where Julia Roberts revealed her ties to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King has gone viral recently. Taken from a sit down with Gayle King for A+E Networks and History Channel's HISTORYTalks in Washington, D.C. this past September, the clip finds Roberts explaining how the Kings were friends with her parents, and took care of hospital expenses following her birth.
“My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers’ Workshop,” Roberts said in the interview. “And one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids.”
\u201cToday is Julia Roberts birthday! 55 years ago MLK and Coretta Scott King paid for her parents hospital bill after she was born. Can\u2019t stop thinking about this since I read it. Here she is talking about it with @GayleKing\u201d— Zara Rahim (@Zara Rahim) 1666976495
Thus began a friendship between Dr. King and his wife Coretta, with Roberts' parents, Walter and Betty Lou Roberts. From there, Roberts shared that the Kings took care of the hospital expenses for her birth since her parents couldn't pay the bill.
"They helped us out of a jam," she said.
Bernice King, the Kings' youngest child, also confirmed this, tweeting: "Grateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it."
\u201cGrateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it. \n\nI know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents\u2019 generosity and influence.\n\n#CorettaScottKing #MLK \nhttps://t.co/Hn9yOVxYIL\u201d— Be A King (@Be A King) 1667187154
Although the interview took place a couple months back, this part of it went viral after a Twitter user shared a compilation video of Roberts, writing: “Martin Luther King Jr. paying for her birth is still a little known fact that sends me.” From there, Zara Rahim, a former strategic adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted that clip of the interview in honor of Roberts' 55th birthday.
Born in Smryna, Georgia, Roberts was no stranger to living in a "horribly racist" environment, calling her former town of Abbeville, South Carolina a “living hell” in a 1990 interview with Rolling Stone. The actress later clarified that she was speaking about an incident where her and a Black friend were refused service at a local restaurant.
“I was shocked that this type of treatment still exists in America in the ’90s — in the South or anywhere else,” she later told the Anderson Independent-Mail.
