KEVIN Clifton was left ‘shaking’ over an ‘uncomfortable’ discovery about his family on Who Do You Think You Are?
The former Strictly Come Dancing pro was the latest famous face to take part in the hit BBC series.
Kevin, 40, was keen to learn more about his family, and his search took him to Canada.
His first stop was an orphanage, where he learned his great-great-grandmother, Emma Grace Elizabeth had been put into an orphanage as a child alongside her siblings.
Kevin was keen to find out what had happened to Emma’s parents, and soon learned his great-great-great grandfather was 40 when he had married his great-great-great grandmother Grace, who was 16.
He said: “This is a picture of my great-great-great-grandparents…John and Grace and two of the three siblings and I don’t know which one is which.
“I can see they got married in January 1882, there are a few years when these two are together and having kids, and all of a sudden they have ended up in an orphanage.”
Later, Kevin read a newspaper report about a court case where it was revealed Grace had had her eyes “blackened” by her husband.
Kevin said: “It’s weird because obviously, I am feeling for my great-great-great-grandmother right now.
“But then that guy who is a baddie to me is my great-great-great grandfather behaving like this.
“It is not comfortable to me, it’s not comfortable at all.”
What he learned about Grace left him “shaking”, as he said towards the end of the episode: “Everything I have learned over the past two weeks about my family history going all the down through generations and ending up at me…none of that would have happened if Grace hadn’t survived this.”
He continued: “I can feel myself shaking at the moment. I am really proud, I am a bit emotional actually, I am fighting it off a bit.”
Who Do You Think You Are? airs on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.