Ant and Dec fans were left shocked when they discovered who Declan Donnelly‘s famous cousin is.
During their show, Ant and Dec’s DNA Journey, Dec discovered that he had a long-lost cousin who was pretty famous for what she did for a living over in the US.
Dixie Carter, a wrestling mogul turned out to be his distant cousin, and the pair met up during the series.
She had been involved with the company Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for several years before she became a ‘storyline character’ in 2010, and before he met her, Dec was shown footage of her in the wrestling ring being thrown through a table.
‘It feels weird, you immediately have this kind of connection with them,’ Dec said after the meeting.
Related on Dec’s father’s side, sharing a four-times great-grandfather, the team were able to track their ancestral connection and unite them for the first time in Ireland.
Ant and Dec fans were left shocked when they discovered who Declan Donnelly ‘s famous cousin is (Ant McPartlin, Dixie Carter and Declan Donnelly pictured L-R in 2019)
Dec’s father Alphonsus Donnelly passed away in 2011 aged 78 after a battle with cancer.
Posting a picture of the three of them together, se penned on Instagram: ‘YES… Declan Donnelly is my cousin! It’s not a wrestling storyline. Dec’s fabulous. Ant too,’
Dec was left in shock when he discovered he had more than 12 cousins he didn’t know existed and some of them were almost as well off as him.
While the pair were in the US doing research for the show, they were told that Dec had a DNA match before he went off to meet his cousin Meg and her husband Greg.
The couple, who were previously unknown to Dec, provided a helicopter for him to travel in and greeted him by laying out a large banner on their lawn.
Meg said: ‘We have the same great, great grandparents.’
She added: ‘I have a little surprise for you, I have a few of your cousins here.’
More than a dozen people then entered the room and Dec was left struggling for words.
Dixie Carter, a wrestling mogul turned out to be his distant cousin, and the pair met up during the series
She had been involved with the company Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for several years before she became a ‘storyline character’ in 2010, and before he met her, Dec was shown footage of her in the wrestling ring being thrown through a table
Related on Dec’s father’s side, sharing a four-times great-grandfather, the team were able to track their ancestral connection and unite them for the first time in Ireland(pictured: Dec’s dad on the car next to his mother left)
He said: ‘Oh wow, this is amazing. I’m really emotional. Oh my goodness. Nice to meet you all.
‘This is quite overwhelming!’
Dec was then introduced to another of his cousins, Tom, who was a firefighter in Manhattan that was on duty during 9/11.
Later in the programme, an emotional past was found in Ant’s family tree relating to his grandmother, Kitty.
Kitty was from Ireland and Ant’s family didn’t know anything about her life before she moved to England from Fermoy, County Cork, when she was about 12 years old.
Ant learns that his great-grandmother, Kitty’s mother, died of tuberculosis but because it was considered shameful, records of it were covered up.
Genealogy expert Anne-Marie Coghlan said: ‘It was the shame of the family so it would be concealed in the records. It’s very, very sad.’
He then discovered that Kitty’s older brother Michael died when he was eight from whooping cough.
Dec was left in shock when he discovered he had more than 12 cousins he didn’t know existed and some of them were almost as well off as him
The couple, who were previously unknown to Dec, provided a helicopter for him to travel in and greeted him by laying out a large banner on their lawn
Kitty never knew because she was told by her parents that he emigrated to America, possibly to shield her from the pain of grief.
Ant said: ‘Thank you very much, this is invaluable to my family, especially to my mother and her sisters and brother.
‘Its information that they’ve been dying to know for years. You’ve really brought her to life with this, thank you.
‘I loved her so much I’ve got nothing but fond memories of her.’
