Why did MLK pay the hospital invoice for Julia Roberts’ beginning?

At this time in random movie star details, we study who paid the hospital invoice for Julia Roberts’ mother and father when she was born in 1967.

That might be the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

Wait, what?

The “Ticket to Paradise” star revealed that factoid in a September interview, nevertheless it went viral once more over the weekend when Zara Rahim, a former strategic advisor for Barack Obama, re-upped it on Twitter to mark Roberts’ fifty fifth birthday on Oct. 28.

“Today is Julia Roberts birthday! 55 years ago MLK and Coretta Scott King paid for her parents hospital bill after she was born,” Rahim tweeted, sharing a clip of the interview with journalist Gayle King. “Can’t stop thinking about this since I read it.”

“The King family paid for my hospital bill,” Roberts stated in footage of the A+E Networks and Historical past Channel’s HISTORYTalks chat with the “CBS This Morning” host.

The “Pretty Woman” and “Erin Brockovich” star was born within the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, Ga., to actor-playwrights Walter and Betty Roberts, who have been buddies with the civil rights leaders.

“My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop. 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. And my mom was like, ‘Sure, come on over.’ And so they all became friends and they helped us out of a jam,” the Oscar winner stated.

“Yeah, because in the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school,” Gayle King noticed, noting that she has no relation to the King household. “And Julia’s parents were welcoming, and I think that’s extraordinary, and it sort of lays the groundwork for who you are.”

The piece of trivia was hotly mentioned on Twitter, with many having a tough time reconciling the circumstances round it.

“For me, it’s surreal to think that Dr. King was alive when Julia was born. I *know* that it wasn’t that long ago, logically, of course, but learning about him as a kid made it seem like ‘ancient’ history. & Julia is anything but,” stated one reply to Rahim’s tweet.

“Very cringe that they took money from a Black family who didn’t even have jobs and relied on donations because they were doing movement work. I hope the family supported the civil rights movement in some way,” wrote one other consumer.

In the meantime, Bernice King, the youngest little one of MLK and Coretta Scott King, additionally confirmed Roberts’ revelation.

“Grateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it,” she tweeted Sunday evening. “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence. #CorettaScottKing #MLK”

Roberts and Yolanda King, the eldest of MLK’s kids, grew to become buddies after Yolanda enrolled within the performing faculty at age 8. At 15, her 1971 starring function within the workshop’s manufacturing of “The Owl and the Pussycat” precipitated a stir as a result of she shared a kiss with a white actor — a transfer that reportedly prompted “a tangential member” of the KKK to explode a Buick outdoors the theater.

Yolanda King continued to pursue performing, in addition to producing and motivational talking. She turned to the performing arts to hold on her mother and father’ civil rights legacy earlier than she died in 2007 at 51 from issues associated to a persistent coronary heart situation.