J.K. Rowling recently participated in the BBC program Who Do You Think You Are?, which follows a celebrity as they learn of their ancesty.
While Jo’s episode won’t be airing for a few more months, she recently sat down for an interview with the Radio Times and revealed some of what she learned.
From The Telegraph:
The novelist learnt during her research for the programme that her great-grandmother, Lizzie, her great-great-grandmother, Salomé, and her great-great-great-grandmother, Christine, raised their children alone.
Her maternal grandmother, Louisa, is also believed to have been born out of wedlock.
Rowling, whose personal wealth is thought to be half a billion pounds, wrote the first book of the Harry Potter series following her divorce while living on benefits in a cold Edinburgh flat with her baby daughter. The experience left her clinically depressed.
“What I’m very struck by is how many single mothers I’m descended from in this line of the family,” she said in an interview for the programme.
“Twenty years ago, I was teaching and writing in my spare time and was very skint. And not long after that, I became a single mum, so I feel the connection.” Article Continues Below
Read more of what Jo learned at this link! We’ll let you know when the episode airs so UK residents can tune in.
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