EXCLUSIVE: The Royal Family’s Astonishing Link to Two of Hollywood’s Biggest A-Listers

Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal may be Hollywood royalty in their own right – but RadarOnline.com can reveal the Oscar-nominated siblings also share a surprising ancestral link to Britain’s royal family, tracing their lineage back to medieval English monarch King Edward III.

Jake, 45, and Maggie, 48, are distant cousins of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died aged 96 in 2022. Genealogists say the actors are the former monarch’s 19th cousins through a shared family line stretching back more than six centuries.

The Gyllenhaal Siblings’ Link to the Royal Family Explained

The connection stems from King Edward III, who ruled England from 1327 until he died in 1377 at age 64. Because Edward III fathered numerous descendants, many modern European families – including the British royal family and Sweden’s Gyllenhaal lineage – share his bloodline.

That ancestry means the Hollywood siblings are also distantly related to King Charles III, 77, and Prince William, 43.

Edward III’s reign left a lasting mark on European history. Crowned at just 14 years old, he ruled for 50 years and is remembered for launching the Hundred Years’ War against France. He also founded the Order of the Garter, the oldest European order of chivalry still in existence.

Today, the order includes senior members of the royal family, among them Princess Anne, Prince Edward, and Queen Camilla.

The connection between the Windsors and the Gyllenhaals emerges through centuries of European nobility. The Gyllenhaal family belongs to a long-established Swedish noble house, whose roots stretch back across Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Jake and Maggie’s father, film director Stephen Gyllenhaal, descends from Swedish-American journalist Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal, whose lineage traces back to that noble family line. Despite their aristocratic ancestry, the actor siblings grew up in Los Angeles and built their reputations through decades of acclaimed film work.

An Impressive Hollywood Resume

Maggie first came to prominence in the early 2000s, earning critical praise for roles in films including Secretary in 2002, Donnie Darko in 2001, and The Dark Knight in 2008.

She later received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Crazy Heart in 2009 and Best Adapted Screenplay for her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter in 2021.

Jake similarly became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring in films such as October Sky in 1999, Nightcrawler in 2014, and Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019.

He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Brokeback Mountain in 2005.

‘I Don’t Think I Was in Touch With the Envy’

Family ties remain central to the siblings’ lives. Maggie is married to actor Peter Sarsgaard, with whom she shares two daughters – Ramona Sarsgaard and Gloria Ray Sarsgaard.

Jake is in a relationship with French model Jeanne Cadieu. Maggie recently spoke about her evolving relationship with her younger brother while promoting her upcoming film The Bride!, which marks the first time she has directed Jake on screen. She used a recent interview to reflect on the complicated dynamics of growing up alongside a sibling who became a star at a young age.

“I don’t think I knew that at first, when I was young, and Jake was a movie star right away,” she added. “I don’t think I was in touch with the envy, but it was there.”

Gyllenhaal also said their relationship has grown closer in recent years as their professional paths increasingly overlap. “We’ve never been as close as we are now,” she added.

“We’re finally, maybe in the last five years, more and more and more, even each day, really interacting, which is hard for people to do.”