An interesting detail about Julia Roberts resurfaced on the occasion of her 55th birthday two days ago.
One Twitter user reposted a video of the “Pretty Woman” actress with the caption: “Martin Luther King Jr paying for her birth is still a little known fact that sends me.” The post garnered over 100,000 likes.
The actress has discussed this part of her life in detail. In an interview with Gayle King last month for the event HistoryTalks, which was hosted by the History Channel and A&E Networks, Roberts was asked about who paid the hospital bill when she was born.
“My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop,” Roberts said in the interview.
“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. And my mom was like, ‘Sure, come on over!’”
“They all became friends, and they just helped us out of a jam,” she added.
Gayle King in the interview notes that during the ’60s, “you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school. And your parents were like, ‘Come on in.’ I think that’s extraordinary, and it sort of lays the groundwork for who you are,” according to People.
The King family had four children — Yolanda, Martin, Dexter and Bernice, the youngest of whom remarked on Roberts’ viral moment.
“Grateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it,” Bernice King tweeted on Sunday. “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence.”