The actress's family grew up in humble conditions in Atlanta and she became close friends with the activist and his wife.
Julia Roberts revealed that the late activist Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, paid the hospital bill where because his parents couldn't afford it.
About her life, it is known that Julia Fiona Roberts was the third daughter of a family from the southern United States and grew up in Atlanta in humble conditions. Her parents, who were barely living, divorced in 1971. Like her siblings, Eric and Lisa, they inherited what Julia's mother called “the family disease”: acting.
While chatting with Gayle King, the “Erin Brockovich” star explained that her parents became friends with the Kings while living in Atlanta and running a drama school.
"Coretta called my mom one day and asked if her kids could be a part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would take their kids," Roberts said, referring to segregation in the 1960s. .
"My mom said, 'Sure,' so they became friends and helped us," the actress explained.
A Ku Klux Klan member blew up a car outside one of Betty and Walter Roberts' plays in response to King Jr's daughter Yolanda being cast in a role where she had to kiss an actor white.
The reporter called the decision by Roberts' parents "extraordinary" because people didn't see "black kids interacting with white kids in acting school" at the time.
The Oscar winner ”celebrated her 55th birthday on Friday by sharing a selfie of herself drinking a cup of coffee and pink and gold balloons.
“Feeling the love and magic on my 55th birthday!” she captioned the Instagram photo of her.
Earlier this month, the “Pretty Woman” star opened up about her life with her husband, Danny Moder, and her children, twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 17, and Henry, 15. .
"The life that I've built with my husband, and the life that we've built with our kids, that's the best," Roberts said.
Her role as a waitress in 1988's “Mystic Pizza” had put her on the map in Hollywood; A year later, she appeared in “Steel Magnolias” and she received her first Oscar nomination, even though winning it would take more years of hard work. She became the undisputed star of romantic comedies with huge hits like "My Best Friend's Wedding" with Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney, "Notting Hill" with Hugh Grant and "Runaway Bride," again sharing the screen with Richard Gere.
The actress of the moment in Hollywood was about to marry Kiefer Sutherland after a brief and passionate affair. But when the ceremony with 150 guests was 72 hours away, Julia canceled everything and she eloped to Ireland with one of her boyfriend's best friends, fellow actor Jason Patric.
In 2016 Kiefer broke the silence about his failed wedding and said he had no negative feelings against Julia. “I think she had courage. She was not what she wanted to do in the end, ”he recounted in an interview in The Jess Cagle Interview. "We were so young and so in love, so we decided to get married, but then other things happened," he reflected.
Julia says she found stability "and the true meaning of a relationship" with cameraman Danny Moder, whom she met on the set of "The Mexican" in 2000. When they fell in love, he was married to Argentine make-up artist Vera Steimberg and she paired with Benjamin Bratt. After their respective separations, they finally said "yes, I do" at a wedding held on July 4, 2002 at their ranch in Taos, New Mexico.
“When I met Danny I found myself. When I think about what my life consists of and what gives it meaning, or I wonder what it is that shines inside me, it's always him," the actress told Harper's Bazaar about the father of her three children. "He is my safest place in the world," she acknowledged.
Family feuds and a painful suicide note
Her half-sister, Nancy Motes, committed suicide in February 2014, leaving a letter in which she blamed her for the drastic decision she had made of her. She was found drowned in the bathtub of her Los Angeles apartment. Shortly before he took his own life from a drug overdose, he wrote a five-page note saying that he expected nothing of her, except to place on her conscience the bad influence he had exerted on her.
