Kevin Bacon Kyra Sedgwick cousins
The program, which is hosted and written by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, uses DNA research to find geological connections to famous Americans. The "Closer" actress told Letterman that she found she was related to Marilyn Monroe, former presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and her husband.
"Tenth cousins once removed," she said. "It was a little upsetting, I'm not going to lie."
Sedgwick and Bacon have been married for 23 years and have two children together - son Travis, 22, and daughter Sosie, 19. The couple, who wed in 1988, has also appeared in several films together.
Sedgwick won an Emmy in 2010 for her role as cop Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT drama series "The Closer," which debuted in 2005 and has featured Bacon as a director. TNT aired the show's seventh season series finale in September 2010.The actress had in December 2010announced she was leaving the series.
Bacon rose to fame with the 1984 musical movie "Footloose" and went on to star in films such as "Apollo 13," "Sleepers" and "Wild Things." His acting career has spurred a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" trivia game.
Last year, Bacon opened up about the massive financial losses he and Sedgwick suffered as a result of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme and said Sedgwick's regular television job helped the family pull through.
In 2009, Madoff, 73, began serving a 150-year prison sentence for running the $50 billion dollar scam, which marks the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history. Bacon and Sedgwick were among scores of customers who were swindled.
Sedgwick and Bacon's episode of "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr." is set to air on April 8 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS, watch a preview and a clip from Kyra Sedgwick's appearance on "Late Show With David Letterman" below.
Genealogist Henry Louis Gates, Jr. led the research on Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, wed for 23 years, for the upcoming television show Finding Your Roots. The 10-part series for PBS is set to launch March 25.
Of the surprising discovery in the Bacon-Sedgwick families the historian explained, "It turns out they share two things -- they both are descendants from people who owned slaves, and they are indeed distant cousins."
"We don't have any prior agreements with anyone [over what could be disclosed] and we just did the stories," Gates added of the show's approach. "We have a team of genealogists. We have different genealogists for different people -- some are more expert on African-Americans, some on Jewish people, some on Ashkenazi-Jewish people, some on Asian people. But whatever we find, we try to boil it down to three or four narrative arcs."
Other famous names shocked by discoveries in their family's past? "Harry Connick, Jr. did not want to know he had Confederate ancestors, I'm sure," shared Gates. "We tell them [stars] and it's a total surprise."
The genealogist continued, "[We discovered] Robert Downey, Jr., two generations back... [there was] a murder in his family. He had no idea. I'm getting him reading the headlines from the New York Times about the murder of these ancestors."
No further word on other famous names expected to appear on the PBS series, though it seems Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick's relation may be the biggest shocker of them all.
Quick with the jokes, Gates concluded, "Talk about six degrees of separation, right?"
The show brought “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” – a game that links people to the famous actor in only six steps – to a whole new level; revealing that there is more than just a loving bond between Bacon and his wife.
Kyra Sedgwick, who has been married to Bacon for 23 years and is mother of their two children (son Travis, 22, and daughter Sosie, 19) has been linked to her husband as a distant cousin.
Host of the PBS show, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., confirms the DNA connection in a report to Zap2It.com. The married couple “are indeed distant cousins,” reports Gates. “Talk about six degrees of separation, right?”