Rita Wilson, best known for her roles in ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and ‘Runaway Bride,’ has opened up about a deeply personal and unexpected discovery in her family history. The actress recently revealed how she learned about her father’s first family before he emigrated from Bulgaria to the United States, describing the revelation as both shocking and deeply moving.Wilson shared the story on the podcast ‘How to Fail with Elizabeth Day’, explaining that she had taken part in the English TV show ‘Who Do You Think You Are’. “Usually in those genealogy shows, they go back many, many generations. But what they found with my dad was that his story was so shocking and unusual that they stuck with his story,” she said.
What Rita Wilson discovered about her father’s past
Wilson recalled travelling to Bulgaria and examining official records that contained two unfamiliar names. “I’m kind of trying to figure this out, and they said, ‘Well, your dad was married,'” she remembered. “I said, ‘What?!’ ‘Yes, he was married, and he had a child.’ I said, ‘Am I gonna meet someone? Am I gonna meet a family?’ It was a little boy.”Sadly, Wilson did not have the opportunity to meet her father’s other family. “My dad’s first wife, whose name was Alice, gave birth on Dec. 26, and she died three days later due to complications from delivery,” she explained, before adding, “Her son, and my dad’s son, Emil, lived for four months. This was right after the war, and then he passed away.” Wilson also clarified that her half-brother did not pass away from starvation but rather from an infection.
The eerie connection that left Rita Wilson speechless
The story took on an even more poignant dimension when Wilson connected the dates. “This is where it gets weird: My sister’s firstborn child was born on Dec. 26, and my youngest son was born on Dec. 26,” she said. “And I think of my dad, all of those years, celebrating all those birthdays, and knowing that he had a child born on Dec. 26, Emil, who passed away.”Wilson said her father never once mentioned his departed loved ones to the family. “I still can’t get over that. He never said anything to us. I wish I could’ve talked to him about that. They kept things so private,” she recalled.The discovery, made decades after her father’s emigration, left Wilson with questions that can never be answered.
