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When The View co-host Sara Haines sat down with renowned genealogist Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Finding Your Roots, she expected an intriguing family history. However, she never expected a revelation that would leave her nearly in tears. In a surprising twist, Gates traced Haines’ ancestry and revealed that Haines is a third cousin, nine times removed of both President John Adams and his son, President John Quincy Adams. Now, Haines joins the list of celebrities who are related to U.S. presidents. Here are four other high-profile names with a similar connection.

The View co-host Sara Haines never expected to find out in 2026 that she was related to two U.S. presidents. Haines spoke with Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr. about her genealogical ties.

“Do you know who that is?” Gates Jr. asks Haines, showing her a portrait of John Adams. Haines notes that the man “looks like a lot of people in my history books.” Gates Jr. then explains that the man is the second president of the U.S. “He is your third cousin, nine times removed,” the expert notes.

This brings tears to Haines’ eyes as she laughs. “Oh my God. I’m related to a president!” Haines says. “And he was a good one!”

Gates Jr. then explains how this information means that Haines is also related to John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the U.S.

Ben Affleck often receives public attention for his award-winning film career. However, deeper dives into his family history reveal surprisingly extensive roots in early American genealogy. According to published family-tree research, Affleck shares distant ancestral ties with multiple U.S. presidents through colonial lines that stretch back to the 17th and 18th centuries. One well-cited genealogical chart from FamousKin.com suggests that Affleck is approximately a seventh cousin, four times removed, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Beyond this FDR link, Affleck is also widely reported to be related to President Barack Obama. Genealogists have traced both men back to shared colonial ancestors in Massachusetts, particularly the Hinckley family of Cape Cod, making Affleck and Obama roughly 11th cousins, according to Ancestry.com.

Brad Pitt’s genealogical link to President Barack Obama is one of the more solidly documented celebrity-presidential connections. Ancestry.com traced both Pitt and the former president back to Edwin Hickman, a Virginia planter who died in 1769. Obama’s connection comes through his mother’s side, specifically his maternal great-great-great-grandmother. She descended from the Hickman line after the family migrated west from Virginia. Pitt’s lineage follows a separate branch of the same Hickman family, eventually settling in Missouri, where Pitt was born and raised.

That shared ancestor places Pitt and Obama as ninth cousins, meaning their family lines converge roughly eight generations back.

Tom Hanks’s link to American presidential history is familial. According to NBC, the Oscar‑winning actor is a third cousin, four generations removed, of President Abraham Lincoln through Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln.

This connection runs along the Hanks family line. Lincoln’s mother and Tom Hanks share a common Hanks ancestor from colonial America, meaning that while the relationship is distant, they trace back to the same branch of the family tree. Hanks himself has referenced this intriguing link in past interviews and around the time he narrated Killing Lincoln. He noted that his cousins and extended relatives include figures connected by blood or marriage to the 16th president.

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Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on the PBS program Firing Line with Margaret Hoover and took a deep dive into his genealogy. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed an unexpected family tie to the 31st president of the United States. Tracing Moore’s paternal line back to his third great-grandparents, Susanna and Henry Hoover of early 19th-century Indiana, Gates explained that this branch of Moore’s family connects him to President Herbert Hoover through shared Quaker ancestors. This makes them approximately sixth cousins once removed.

Moore joked about the discovery, tweeting that he was related to “the president who is my cousin, Herbert Hoover.” He then added a light-hearted apology to those who suffered during the Great Depression, quipping he had nothing to do with it.

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