Actor Joe Manganiello discovered that his grandfather was a “Black man of mixed race.” The Magic Mike actor learned the shocking news when he received a call from researchers from the PBS show Finding Your Roots, Sis2Sis reports.
The show’s host, Henry Louis Gates Jr., also informed the actor that he’s “zero percent genetically related to anyone named Manganiello in the world.”
According to the researchers, Manganiello’s great-grandfather was a slave who gained his freedom before slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. The actor’s father, according to the researchers, was born outside of Boston and his family originated from Italy.
“None of us would have guessed that if we’d had 10 years of guessing,” the Hollywood star said, according to Sis2Sis. “If Manganiello’s not my last name, what is?”
Manganiello’s great-grandfather, according to the researchers, joined the Continental Army and fought with other Black soldiers, battling the British in nonsegregated units. The actor also learned that his maternal great-grandmother survived the Armenian genocide during World War I, but her husband and children did not.
Manganiello’s great-grandmother played dead after being shot. She then escaped with her eighth child, who drowned in the Euphrates River.
Manganiello said his family previously told him that his great-grandmother was imprisoned and she was impregnated by a German officer she met at the camp.
“We had nothing to connect us being German other than this,” he said, adding that locals assumed he was German when he filmed in Europe last year.
Researchers faced difficulty when studying the movie star’s family history because the Turkish government didn’t allow them to have access to pertinent records.
Manganiello is married to actress Sofia Vergara. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh.
