(CNN) Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox played Friends, then lovers, then husband and wife over the course of a decade -- but the two actors are actually distant cousins, according to ancestry experts. The "Friends" stars are 11th cousins, researchers at the online genealogy website MyHeritage have found. They discovered that Perry and Cox share distant relatives William Osbern Haskell III and Ellen Haskell, who were married and lived in England around 500 years ago, the company told CNN. One son, Roger, is a direct ancestor of Courteney, and the second son, William, is a direct ancestor of Matthew, they said. The connection is made through Cox's mother, Courteney Copeland, and Perry's father, John Bennett Perry.

Source: CNN May 26, 2021 15:00 UTC