Celebs You Never Knew Were Related Through Marriage

Hollywood bloodlines run deep, and for the most part, celebrity families are well documented. We know who's related to who, especially on account of the stars' general preference for marrying and/or procreating with fellow stars. And if we're not tipped off by the last names being the same, we can usually see the familial connections in their faces. But this doesn't always work. Sometimes, famous people marry into other famous families and the majority of the public misses the memo.

Take Casey Affleck marrying Summer Phoenix, for example. Though they're divorced now, their kids will always be members of not one, but two of Hollywood's most well-known families. Their marriage also made Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix, two of the most talented actors on the scene, brothers-in-law — but we don't exactly see those two palling around in public too often, right? With that in mind, we decided to take a look at some other famous "in-law" connections with celebs you never knew were related through marriage.

Since she was three-years old, Nicole Richie has been living a life of fame. It was then that music superstar Lionel Richie became her guardian (he would later adopt her when she was nine). So, when Richie married another celebrity, Good Charlotte rocker Joel Madden, in 2010 after four years of dating, no one was really surprised.

But the famous family didn't stop growing there. In 2014, Joel's brother and bandmate, Benji Madden, began dating Richie's long-time famous friend, Cameron Diaz. It didn't take long for this super couple to tie the knot either, getting hitched the following year.

Seeing Diaz take this step was a little more surprising. While she had dated other celebrities in the past, she also told Maxim (via US Weekly) that she believed marriage was a "dying institution." Still, in tying the knot with Richie's brother-in-law, Diaz effectively turned her friend into her sister. Though we're not suggesting that had anything to do with Diaz's decision to take part in the institution of marriage, having a shiny new famous sister-in-law who is also your friend probably didn't hurt.

In 2010, superstar Hollywood couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt made good on their promises to marry. It was back in 2008 that they started dating and fans of celebrity love were waiting for them to make it official.

The wedding, which took place at George Clooney's house on Lake Como in Italy, was held outdoors  and was "absolutely beautiful," according to an "insider" who spoke with Us Weekly. Well, apparently, so too was Blunt's sister, Felicity. We know this because, Stanley Tucci, actor extraordinaire and wedding guest, was captivated by the actress' sister.

According to The Daily Mail, Tucci and Blunt's sister, Felicity, met and hit it off during the celebration. Despite a reported 21-year age gap between the two, as well as a recent bereavement for Tucci, who lost his wife, Kathryn, in 2009, the new couple were engaged in 2011 and married in 2012.

With all this information, we can do the math. Tucci, in marrying Felicity Blunt, gains a new sister-in-law in Emily, his friend and former Devil Wears Prada ­co-star. Tucci also gains a new co-brother-in-law (or whatever you want to call it) in Krasinski. Either way, there's a lot of money at the table during Thanksgiving.

Celebrity relations can be difficult to keep track of, but sometimes, even when we get clear-cut clues, such as identical last names, we still fail to see or recognize the familial ties. Take David Spade and late designer Kate Spade, for example. Many people likely doubted their relation. Since both celebrities had very successful careers in their respective fields for many years, they both had a big part of making the name Spade well known.

David, a comedian and well-known actor, became a regular on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. Kate, meanwhile, started her handbag line, Kate Spade New York, in 1993. By the late 90s, both of these Spades were known independently by the public, which could possibly explain why their familial connection was overlooked.

In truth, Kate wasn't always a Spade. In fact, she started the Kate Spade fashion line before she even married Andy Spade and officially took his last name in 1994. Prior to Kate and Andy tying the knot and Kate becoming David's sister-in-law, she was known as Katy Brosnahan.

But the Spades shared more than a name. When Kate passed away in 2018, David, her brother-in-law for 22 years, posted a heartfelt memory of her on Instagram, writing, in part, "Its a rough world out there people, try to hang on."

Back in 1989, Reba McEntire married music manager, Narvel Blackstock. Though the couple eventually divorced in 2015 after 26 years of marriage, Reba got a child of her own and three step children from the marriage. In that group of kids is Brandon Blackstock, the man who would eventually marry singer Kelly Clarkson and bring two of music's biggest stars together into the same family.

Clarkson and Brandon knew each other for years before they ever started dating. In fact, Brandon's father, Narvel, is Kelly Clarkson's manager, and she and Brandon crossed paths many times at shows and events. Still, as Clarkson told The Daily Mail, "[Brandon] was married for most of that time."

It wasn't until Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 when Clarkson sang the "Star Bangled Banner" that she and Brandon were single together and hit it off. After that, it only took 10 months for the engagement, then the wedding the following year in 2013. As far as Reba and Clarkson go, even before they were related through marriage, they were connected through music, even joining forces for a duet of "Because of You" years earlier.

Though the Dominczyk sisters, Dagmara and Marika, are actors who have done very well for themselves, they're also two Polish-born women who married two unrelated famous men. In 2005, Dagmara got the ball rolling by tying the knot with actor Patrick Wilson. Because Wilson is the more recognizable actor in the couple, Dagmara understands and accepts that many fans know her through her spouse.

"Those who know me a little bit know I'm an actress," she told The New York Times. "Those who don't know me know I'm married to Patrick Wilson." Well, Dagmara would soon get some emotional support from her sister, Marika, who would also get to know the feeling of having a famous husband. In 2007, Marika married actor, Scott Foley.

Not only does this famous and attractive foursome all get to hang out with each other during family get-togethers, but they've also worked together. In 2014, they all took part in making Ward's Wife. Interestingly, in the film, Wilson actually played husband to his sister-in-law, Marika, while his real-life wife was partnered up with his co-star, Donald Faison.

Most people are very familiar with Tracee Ellis Ross, Diana Ross' daughter, but the legendary singer has five children in total, and several of them are in show business. One of Diana's sons, Evan Ross, is an actor himself, but he also married into another famous family when he took Ashlee Simpson as his wife in 2014. This celebrity family merger was one to behold.

When you have a couple like Simpson and Ross, two celebrities who can move freely between two well-known families, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that there will be a reality TV show about them. Well, that's exactly what happened in 2018 with the E! series, Ashlee and Evan.

While the show will almost certainly clue many more viewers into the fact that Diana Ross is Simpson's mother-in-law, fans shouldn't beat themselves up — even Simpson herself is still shocked by the association. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Simpson said, "There are moments where I'm like, 'Wow, that's my mother-in-law.'" Evan, Diana's own son, admitted that his mom tends to have that effect on people. "She's definitely larger than life," he said.

There was a time when Gloria Steinem, one of the world's most iconic feminists, was a harsh critic of the institution of marriage. She long fought to make marriage more equal, then, when the institution did become more balanced for women throughout North America, she took advantage of it and got married herself.

In speaking about her marriage, Steinem said, "I'm happy, surprised and one day will write about it, but for now, I hope this proves what feminists have always said — that feminism is about the ability to choose what's right at each time of our lives."

While the fact that Steinem got married at all was news, who she married was also interesting. This is because her husband, David Bale, an environmentalist who died in 2003, was Christian Bale's father, making Steinem, Bale's stepmother.

In 2016, Daily Life, caught up with Steinem and discovered that her connection to Christian wasn't lost when his father passed away: "He is a very good person, a great lover of animals and an immensely talented actor," Steinem said of her stepson. "I don't see him that often, but we're in touch from time to time."

While David Hornsby may not be the most famous actor in Hollywood, fans of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will know him well as the man behind the beloved character, Rickety Cricket. Hornsby, who flies under the radar while also writing and co-producing that show, is married to someone who has a little more difficult not being noticed by fans, Emily Deschanel.

A few years after the couple wed in 2010, Hornsby even got to appear on his wife's TV show, Bones. But Emily isn't the only Deschanel that Hornsby's got to work with. The Rickety Cricket actor also appeared in season six of The New Girl with his sister-in-law, Zooey Deschanel.

Having a castmate in Hornsby isn't the only thing these sisters shared either. As Emily told Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live (via People), the Deschanel sisters were also pregnant at the same time, having babies within two months of each other. Deschanel was quick to clarify, however, that it was with "Different husbands — to be clear, different husbands!"

When he isn't directing things being blown up on film or producing films in which things are blown up, Michael Bay often takes time to speak to the press about the delicate craft of blowing things up on film. It was during one such conversation with MTV that Bay revealed something very interesting: that he was related (through marriage) to the late-great Leonard Nimoy. *explosion noise*

The discussion got onto the topic because Bay was looking for voice actors for his then-upcoming Transformers film and the iconic Star Trek actor, Nimoy, who once voiced Galvatron in the 1986 film, Transformers: The Movie, was suggested as an option. Bay suggested that his familial ties with Nimoy made the proposition of him appearing in the film a complicated matter, if only because Bay's voice actors weren't paid much.

"You know, he's related to me," Bay told MTV. "And now that you are filming this, maybe you can send it to him." He then detailed how the connection came about, stating that "[Nimoy] is married to Susan Bay, who's a cousin to me." Despite the low pay and the awkward discussion, Bay eventually landed his cousin through marriage as a voice actor, and the movie went on to earn more than $1 billion worldwide.