21 Jaw-Dropping Celebrity “Facts” People Learned After Reading Their Wikipedia Pages

A while back, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the most interesting celebrity Wikipedia page they know of. And then more people responded in the comments. Here are everyone’s funny, upsetting, and truly shocking responses:

BTW, this should probably go without saying, but because this information all comes from Wikipedia, take it with a grain of salt, ya know?

1. “Mara Wilson (’90s child actor from Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire) and Ben Shapiro (conservative commentator) are first cousins. That damn near broke my brain when I first found out. Although, they are estranged.”

—2dabdeb

2. “Eddie Vedder (bless his gorgeous heart) grew up thinking the man his mother was married to was his dad, but he wasn’t. His mother lied and only told him the truth when he was about 13. The sad part was that his real dad had died by then. His real dad, whom Eddie had been introduced to a few times as a family friend, had already died of MS a couple of years before. His stepdad abused him, so he moved out at 15 and lived alone, struggling at school because he was paying bills by working at a drug store at night. Inspired a million Pearl Jam songs, including Alive.”

—aseverson

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3. “This isn’t ‘shocking’ so much as it is wonderfully wholesome, but the story of how Alan Alda met his wife. A cake fell on the floor at a wedding, and they were the only two guests that ate it. They’ve been married for over 68 years!”

—sofiagracedownes

4. “Anne Heche‘s whole life was filled with trauma, from beginning to end. Her father died of AIDS, she was estranged from her openly-homophobic Christian mom, and three of her four siblings died before she was 40 (including one infant death and an apparent suicide). After her high-profile relationship and breakup with Ellen DeGeneres, agents were hesitant to cast her. She eventually had a meltdown at a California ranch in 2000 and created a fantasy ‘Fourth Dimension’ world. And then, the page talks about her fatal car crash and how it was complete chaos.”

—ieatraw_eggs123

5. “Mark Ruffalo‘s brother was found outside his home with a gunshot wound to the head. The case remains unsolved.”

—newlyhuman

6. “Matthew McConaughey‘s dad died while having sex with his mother, Mary Kathleen ‘Kay’ McConaughey.”

—deesby

7. “Woody Harrelson. I absolutely LOVE Woody Harrelson, but imagine my utter shock when I discovered his father, Charles, was a bona fide hitman who assassinated a federal judge. His dad also apparently claimed that he was the one who shot JFK, but apparently, that was said to stall his arrest 💀. Oddly enough, this makes me love Woody Harrelson even more??? Like, how could you not have a sense of humor after having a father like that?”

—laidedahunsi

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8. Charlize Theron‘s mother killed Charlize’s father in self-defense when she was a teenager.”

—a43920c533

9. “Sam Cooke. After he was killed, his protégée, Bobby Womack, showed up to the funeral wearing Cooke’s suit. Three months later, he married Cooke’s wife, Barbara. He later released a song about sleeping with his friend’s wife. They ended up divorcing after Barbara caught Womack in bed with her and Cooke’s 17-year-old daughter, Linda. Barbara fired a gun at his head, but it only grazed him. Linda later married Womack’s brother, Cecil, and they had several children together.”

—ms_tnbelle

10. “Ryan Gosling. This isn’t the only part that was good, but it is the very best part: ‘He “hated” being a child, was bullied in elementary school, and had no friends until he was 14 or 15.’ In grade one, having been heavily influenced by the action film First Blood, he took steak knives to school and threw them at other children during recess. This incident led to a suspension.”

—miznortonbuswell

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11. “Dennis Rodman, for sure. Dude has something like 30 siblings? And let’s not forget his journeys to North Korea.”

—cupofteadailyhappiness

12. “Elizabeth Taylor. If I recall correctly, a lot of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands/boyfriends had the same age, from her early 20s to her 60s; she just loved men at a certain age.”

—cleverdog30

13. “Rod Stewart and the chart of all of his relationships, with sections like if he married them, how long they were together, and how many kids they had.”

—cythompson8

14. “Dexter Holland. The Wikipedia page for the lead singer of The Offspring is wild. I wish someone would write an end-of-the-world movie starring Dexter Holland as the amazing microbiologist, rock star, pilot, hot sauce-making, surfing, stamp collector that he is.”

—andip4

15. “Jerry Lee Lewis‘s page is a pretty long read and casually mentions he could be possibly responsible for one of his wives’ deaths. He also married his 13-year-old cousin (when he was 22).”

—mg190262

16. “Frank Lloyd Wright — does he count as a celebrity? Because his life was wild. He left his wife, Catherine, and a bunch of kids and started dating his neighbor’s wife, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Then, she was literally ax-murdered!!”

—whatevercat42

Related: 30 Shocking Celebrity Facts That Sound 100% Fake But Are Actually 1,000,000% True

17. “Courtney Love, hands down. Her life started out with her dad (who was the tour manager for the Grateful Dead) dosing her with acid as a toddler. By the time she was 20, she had: moved to New Zealand, got kicked out of boarding school, moved back to the states, and became legally emancipated at age 16. She was a topless dancer in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, lived in London with a member of Echo & the Bunnymen, briefly became the singer of Faith No More, and cleaned vintage costumes for Paramount Pictures. That’s not even half of it! An absolutely unhinged biography.”

—notthebeeeeez

18. “Kelsey Grammer had a very unfortunate start to life. Most of his family died young or were murdered.”

—katrinamichanicou

19. “Tammi Terrell. Her ‘Personal Life’ and ‘Death’ sections will make you further revere her duet partner Marvin Gaye while providing terrifying portraits of James Brown (who abused her in a relationship, and when she was just 17) and David Ruffin (who proposed to her while he was already married).”

—artf423c67d40

20. “Jack Nicholson grew up thinking that his mother was his older sister. She had him as a teenager, and his grandparents pretended that they were his actual birth parents. He found out as an adult when a researcher from Time magazine told him.”

—hailcthulhu

21. “David Bowie and his first wife were late to their wedding because they were having a threesome.”

—bc13

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

What’s a wild fact YOU learned about a celebrity from Wikipedia (or somewhere else)? Tell us in the comments or in the totally anonymous form below!

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