Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe share more than just the “blonde bombshell” comparison that fans and fashion commentators have been drawing for years. According to new genealogy research released by MyHeritage on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, the two actresses are ninth cousins, once removed.
Their family trees converge at Ezra Perry, an early English settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts, who lived from approximately 1625 to 1689. The connection runs through both women’s paternal lines: Sweeney through her father Steven Sweeney, and Monroe through her biological father Charles Stanley Gifford.
The reveal gave a literal family-tree foundation to a comparison that had, until now, been based entirely on physical resemblance, Old Hollywood styling, and a shared “second coming of Marilyn” narrative. Sweeney, 29, has worn Monroe-inspired looks to multiple red carpets this year, including a Ceil Chapman gown at the 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a Galia Lahav gown at The Housemaid Los Angeles premiere that echoed Monroe’s Seven Year Itch dress.
Neither Sweeney nor her representatives had publicly responded to the MyHeritage announcement as of the time of its release.
MyHeritage simultaneously announced that Dakota Johnson, who portrays Marilyn Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact, is also related to Monroe. Johnson is Monroe’s ninth cousin, three times removed, through a connection the company’s researchers also traced through their shared archives.
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Sydney Sweeney Marilyn Monroe Family Tree: The Connection Explained
The MyHeritage team traced the Sweeney-Monroe connection through both women’s paternal family lines.
On Sweeney’s side:
- Sydney Sweeney
- Steven Sweeney (Sydney’s father)
- Multiple generations of Sweeney ancestors
- The line eventually traces back through Benjamin Perry
- Benjamin Perry’s parents: Ezra Perry and Elizabeth Burgess
On Monroe’s side:
- Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson)
- Charles Stanley Gifford (Monroe’s biological father)
- Multiple generations of Gifford ancestors
- The line eventually traces back through Deborah Pope
- Deborah Pope’s parents: Ezra Perry and Elizabeth Burgess
Ezra Perry was born around 1625 and died in 1689. He was an early English settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts, one of the oldest towns on Cape Cod. Sandwich was founded in 1637, which means Perry would have been among the first generation of English settlers in the area.
He and his wife Elizabeth Burgess had multiple children. One generation down from the couple, the family tree splits: Sweeney’s side runs through their son Benjamin Perry, and Monroe’s side runs through their daughter Deborah Pope.
That split, approximately 10 generations before either Sweeney or Monroe was born, is what makes them ninth cousins. The “once removed” part of the designation reflects that the two women sit one generation apart on the family tree, meaning one of them is one generation further from the shared ancestor than the other.
Sydney Sweeney is related to Marilyn Monroe!
Full details: https://t.co/9OAMjTU86g https://t.co/CbhDYNxDzb
— TMZ (@TMZ) October 7, 2026
Understanding “Ninth Cousins, Once Removed”
The language of distant cousin relationships can be confusing. Here is what the terms mean in practical terms.
Cousins share a common ancestor. First cousins share grandparents. Second cousins share great-grandparents. Third cousins share great-great-grandparents, and so on.
Ninth cousins share eighth-great-grandparents, which means their most recent common ancestors lived approximately 10 generations ago.
“Once removed” means that the two cousins are separated by one generation. In the Sweeney-Monroe case, one of them is one generation closer to Ezra Perry than the other.
What this means in practical terms: Sweeney and Monroe share approximately 1/262,144 of their DNA through this specific common ancestor, assuming no other shared ancestors in the lines between them. That is a vanishingly small genetic overlap, far smaller than what most people share with other members of their own ethnic group through general ancestry.
The connection is still a legitimate family link in genealogical terms. It is just a very distant one.
Who Is Ezra Perry, the Shared Ancestor
Ezra Perry, the ancestor who connects Sweeney and Monroe, was part of the English Puritan migration to New England in the mid-1600s.
He was born around 1625, likely in England. He settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, a town on the northwestern side of Cape Cod. Sandwich was established in 1637 by a group of settlers from Saugus, Massachusetts, and became one of the earliest incorporated towns in the Plymouth Colony.
Perry lived in Sandwich for the remainder of his life, dying in 1689 at approximately 64 years old. He married Elizabeth Burgess, and together they had multiple children whose descendants spread across New England and, eventually, across the United States.
That spread is why he turns up as a shared ancestor for two women born more than three centuries after his death. English colonial settlers in 17th-century New England tended to have large families, and their descendants populated significant portions of what became the American Northeast. Someone with deep New England ancestry is likely to find themselves sharing distant ancestors with other people of similar background.
Perry himself was not a historically significant figure. He appears in records as a settler, landowner, and family patriarch. His primary legacy, from a modern perspective, is the number of descendants he produced.
The Monroe-Sweeney Parallels That Started the Research
The MyHeritage study was prompted, in part, by the growing frequency of Sweeney-Monroe comparisons in entertainment coverage.
Roi Mandel, MyHeritage’s director of research, explained the research team’s thinking in a statement: “People have always drawn parallels between Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe, but seeing their paths align on a deeper level inspired us to look for a real bond in the MyHeritage archives. Uncovering their shared branch was incredible, it’s a powerful reminder that humanity is one vast family tree, and when we dig deep, we uncover how remarkably interconnected we all are.”
Sweeney has fueled those comparisons through her fashion choices over the past year. Among the notable moments:
February 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Sweeney accepted the Virtuosos Award in a vintage Ceil Chapman gown that closely mirrored the dress Monroe wore on her first Life magazine cover in April 1952.
October 2025 World Series: Sweeney appeared at a Dodgers game with a new bleached blonde bob styled in retro curls, paired with ultra-short denim shorts and black knee-high cowboy boots. The look was widely described as a Monroe homage.
December 2025 The Housemaid Los Angeles premiere: Sweeney wore a custom white Galia Lahav gown with a waist-cinching bodice and feathered skirt that evoked the dress Monroe famously wore in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch.
Governors Awards 2026 red carpet: Sweeney’s styling was described by multiple outlets as having Marilyn Monroe on the mood board.
The comparisons go beyond fashion. Sweeney has been photographed and filmed in Monroe-adjacent poses, has adopted retro hairstyling, and has starred in projects that invite the parallel. Her boyfriend, music executive Scooter Braun, has reportedly noted the resemblance in his own commentary.
The Dakota Johnson Connection
The Sweeney reveal was accompanied by a parallel announcement about Dakota Johnson.
Johnson, 36, portrays Marilyn Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact, which premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival. The film also features Ellen Burstyn playing a version of Monroe in another phase of her life.
MyHeritage researchers also traced Johnson’s family tree to find a Monroe connection. According to the company, Johnson is Monroe’s ninth cousin, three times removed.
“With a new film bringing Marilyn Monroe back into the spotlight, our research team wanted to see whether there was a deeper family connection. Discovering that Dakota Johnson and Marilyn Monroe are related turns the casting into a real-life family story,” Naama Lanski, a researcher at MyHeritage, said in a statement.
The two Monroe-related revelations in a single news cycle underscored MyHeritage’s PR strategy of using celebrity genealogy to generate attention for their platform. The company has done similar reveals before, including the discovery that Friends co-stars Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox were distant cousins.
Who Is Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney was born on September 12, 1997, in Spokane, Washington. She is 29 years old.
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She broke through with roles in HBO’s Euphoria and The White Lotus (season one). Her Emmy-nominated performances in both series established her as one of the most prominent young actresses of her generation. She has since appeared in Anyone But You, Immaculate, Madame Web, Reality, and the recent horror film The Housemaid.
She has an upcoming role as boxer Christy Martin in the biographical film Christy and is involved in the untitled Wonder Woman reboot discussions.
Her father Steven Sweeney, the family connection to Monroe, has deep New England roots, which is how the family tree traces back to Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Sweeney has been in a relationship with music executive Scooter Braun since 2025.
Who Was Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. She died on August 4, 1962, at age 36 from a barbiturate overdose at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Her biological father was Charles Stanley Gifford, a sales manager at the film processing company where her mother Gladys Pearl Baker worked. Gifford and Baker were never married, and Gifford had no significant role in Monroe’s upbringing. The paternity was long rumored but was confirmed by DNA testing conducted in 2022.
Monroe’s film career spanned roughly 15 years, from her first major role in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) to her final completed film The Misfits (1961). Her most iconic films include Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Bus Stop (1956), and Some Like It Hot (1959).
She was married three times: to James Dougherty (1942-1946), baseball player Joe DiMaggio (1954), and playwright Arthur Miller (1956-1961). She converted to Judaism in 1956 before marrying Miller, which is itself a parallel point of interest in the Sweeney context, as Sweeney has reportedly been considering a similar conversion.
Monroe remains one of the most recognizable cultural figures of the 20th century. Her image continues to appear on merchandise, in advertisements, and in homages like the ones Sweeney has staged over the past year.
The Shared Family Tree at a Glance
| Generation | Sweeney Line | Monroe Line |
|---|---|---|
| Common ancestor (c. 1625-1689) | Ezra Perry & Elizabeth Burgess | Ezra Perry & Elizabeth Burgess |
| Next generation | Benjamin Perry | Deborah Pope |
| Many generations | Sweeney ancestors | Gifford ancestors |
| Modern | Steven Sweeney (father) | Charles Stanley Gifford (biological father) |
| Current | Sydney Sweeney | Marilyn Monroe |
Relationship: Ninth cousins, once removed.
MyHeritage’s Celebrity Genealogy Track Record
MyHeritage has made similar celebrity family tree announcements before. The company’s approach combines genuine genealogical research with timing designed to generate media attention.
Notable prior reveals include:
- Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox, Friends co-stars, revealed as distant cousins
- Multiple historical figures linked to modern celebrities
The reveals are not fabricated, but they are selective. Any person with deep ancestry in a particular region will share distant cousins with other people from the same background, and MyHeritage’s databases allow their researchers to identify those connections when they would be newsworthy.
The Sweeney-Monroe reveal fits that pattern. Both women have significant New England English colonial ancestry on their fathers’ sides. In a population where most people with that background share dozens or hundreds of distant cousins among other descendants of the same original settlers, finding one specific link between two famous women is a matter of looking for it in the right place.
That does not diminish the connection, which is genealogically legitimate. It just contextualizes why such connections turn up when researchers go looking for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe related?
Yes. According to genealogy research released by MyHeritage on October 7, 2026, Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe are ninth cousins, once removed. They share a common ancestor named Ezra Perry, who was an early settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and lived from approximately 1625 to 1689.
How are Sydney Sweeney and Marilyn Monroe related?
The two actresses are connected through their fathers’ family lines. Sweeney’s father Steven Sweeney and Monroe’s biological father Charles Stanley Gifford both descend from Ezra Perry and his wife Elizabeth Burgess. Sweeney’s line runs through the couple’s son Benjamin Perry; Monroe’s line runs through their daughter Deborah Pope.
What does “ninth cousins, once removed” mean?
Ninth cousins share eighth-great-grandparents, meaning their closest common ancestors lived approximately 10 generations ago. “Once removed” means one of them is one generation further removed from the common ancestor than the other, so Sweeney and Monroe are not quite on the same generational level in the family tree.
Who is Ezra Perry?
Ezra Perry was an early English settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts, who lived from approximately 1625 to 1689. He was part of the Puritan migration to New England in the mid-1600s and had multiple children with his wife Elizabeth Burgess. His descendants spread throughout New England and across the United States.
Is Dakota Johnson also related to Marilyn Monroe?
Yes. According to the same MyHeritage research, Dakota Johnson is Marilyn Monroe’s ninth cousin, three times removed. Johnson plays Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact, which premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
Has Sydney Sweeney commented on the family tree reveal?
As of October 8, 2026, Sydney Sweeney had not publicly commented on the MyHeritage announcement. Her representatives have not released a statement.
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