Rita WilsonKnown for her roles in “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Runaway Bride,” she has opened up about her personal and unexpected discovery of her family history. The actress recently revealed how she found out about her father’s first family before immigrating to the United States from Bulgaria, describing the revelation as shocking and heartbreaking.Wilson shared it on the podcast ‘How to Fail with Elizabeth Day’, and revealed that he participated in the TV show ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ in English. “Usually in those genealogy shows, you go back many, many generations. But what they found with my father was that his story was so moving and unusual that they stuck with his story,” he said.
What Rita Wilson discovered about her father’s past
Wilson recalled traveling to Bulgaria and examining official records that contained two unknown names. “I’m trying to figure that out, and they said, ‘Well, your dad got married,'” she recalled. “I was like, ‘What?!’ “Yes, he was married and had a child.” I said, ‘Am I going to meet someone? Will I meet a family?’ He was a little boy.’Unfortunately, Wilson did not have the opportunity to meet his father’s other family. “My father’s first wife, whose name was Alice, gave birth on December 26, and died three days later from complications of childbirth,” he explained, before adding: “Her son and my father’s son, Emil, lived for four months. It was right after the war, and then he died.” Wilson also clarified that his half brother did not die of starvation, but of an infection.
The terrifying connection left Rita Wilson speechless
The story took on an even sharper dimension when Wilson linked the dates. “This is the strange thing: my sister’s first son was born on December 26, and my youngest son was born on December 26,” he said. “And I think about my dad, all those years, celebrating all those birthdays and knowing he had a child born in December. 26, Emil, who passed away.”Wilson said his father never mentioned his loved ones in the family. “I still can’t get over it. He never told us anything. I wish I had talked to him about it. They kept things so private,” she recalled.The discovery, made decades after his father’s emigration, left Wilson with questions that could never be answered.
