Is Kate Middleton related to Anne Boleyn?

Queen Catherine and the Boleyn Line: A Tudor Connection

It may sound like something out of a historical novel, but there’s a thread of Tudor blood running through the modern British royal family. Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is indeed linked to one of history’s most infamous queens—Anne Boleyn—not by direct descent, but through her lesser-known sister, Mary.

When Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011, genealogists dug into her family tree and uncovered a surprising lineage. Mary Boleyn, Anne’s sister and mistress to King Henry VIII before Anne’s rise, had a daughter named Catherine Carey. That line eventually led to Elizabeth Knollys, Mary Boleyn’s granddaughter, who is now recognized as Catherine’s 12th great-grandmother.

Here’s where it gets even more intriguing: Prince William shares that same ancestor. Yes, Elizabeth Knollys is also his 12th great-grandmother. So, in a quiet twist of history, the couple are actually distant cousins, united not just by love and duty, but by blood—and by the shadowy corridors of the Tudor court.

While Anne Boleyn herself left no surviving descendants, her family’s legacy endured through Mary’s line. And now, more than four centuries later, that legacy lives on in the children of William and Catherine. From the Tower of London to Kensington Palace, the past isn’t as far behind us as we think.