Unlikely Family: Ellen DeGeneres and Kate Middleton Are 15th Cousins

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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Irrespective of the truth, that’s one hell of a way to go about securing a wedding invite, Ellen.

Funny lady Ellen DeGeneres recently received a letter (how quaint!) from the New England Genealogical Society. And you’ll never guess what information it contained. Ellen and the Kate Middleton, the future Queen of England, are 15th cousins.

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of Kate Middleton.)

Ellen being Ellen, she had to start off with a zinger, saying that she thought the note, “was from my lady doctor.” Actually, it transpires that the two women are related through a man named Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife, Agnes Gascoigne. “You are distant cousins … but cousins still the same,” the letter concluded.

(More on TIME.com: See more on the upcoming royal wedding.)

Will Kate and Prince William honor the New England Genealogical Society’s fine work and now extend an invite to this most distant of relatives? Judging by Ellen’s remarks — “I’m definitely invited to the wedding now! Between the Packers winning the Super Bowl and this, I’m having a good week” — she might have already cleared her diary for April 29th. But if she does get one of the precious invitations to help her new-found cousin celebrate, NewsFeed has worked out that she’ll break at least 50 conventions of Royal etiquette if she dances down the aisle at Westminster Abbey in that inimitable style of hers. (via E!)