...and one ancestor was 'groom of the stool' to Charles I

Josh Widdicombe is a direct descendent of Henry VIII, the comedian has learned on Who Do You Think You Are?

The stand-up is the  23 times great-grandson of the Tudor monarch, via an ancestor said to be the king’s illegitimate daughter.

Widdicombe, 38, is separately descended from  Edward I; and is the ten times great-grandson of the first Earl of Holland, an adviser to King Charles I whose role as ‘groom of the stool’ was to accompany him to the toilet at all times.

Speaking of discovering his royal roots, the comic said: ‘Of course it surprises you, because you expect to go into this and find someone who's worked in a library and had a restaurant, but then you end up finding royalty.

‘I had no idea that’s where it was going and that's so exciting to find out. I mean it’s hilarious! At the end of the day it's funny, it's not something you're proud of or something that is going to change the way that you live, but it is really funny that I'm descended from these people.

‘I’m not a Royalist so it was kind of quite weird. It's not like I feel deeply proud of this fact, it's just that it feels very surreal.

’It feels like "what happened?" I mean, how has it gone from that, to me. But it also makes you much more interested in those periods in history. It's fascinating, it makes you go "I should learn about this".’

He added that he wouldn’t be showing off his royal connections, but ‘I imagine it’ll be the first thing asked to me on every chat show I go on for the next five years’.

The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? also features Joe Lycett, who  discovers his two-times-great grandfather was a boy chimney sweep in the 1850s who later joined the Royal Marines and travelled the world, but struggled to process his experiences.

 Ed Balls, Dame Judi Dench, Pixie Lott, Alex Scott and Joe Sugg are also taking part. Widdicombe's episode airs on BBC One at 9pm next Tuesday, October 12.

Published: 5 Oct 2021