Y’all this is crazy!!
Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler have always had a special connection on and off the screen, but it turns out it’s because they’re related! Seriously!! On Tuesday, the High School Musical alum and her sister Jennifer Tisdale took part in Ancestry’s 2 Lies and a Leaf show, in which they discovered lots of facts about their family’s history, such as they have one ancestor who invented a bedazzler and another who owned a New Jersey movie theater. Pretty cool… until you hear what followed!
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Toward the end of the show, Ashley learned she is actually related to one of her co-stars and former love interests! OMFG!
The host asked the sisters who they thought the 37-year-old actress was related to and gave three options: A) Zac Efron, B) Austin Butler, or C) Dylan and Cole Sprouse. To be honest, any of the answers would have been jaw-dropping since she’s been linked to almost all of them on-screen at one point in her life! Even Ashley was having a tough time wrapping her head around this idea, she exclaimed:
“Oh my god, I have kissed almost every single one of them. And just so you know, I’ve kissed every single one of them on a show, not in real life.”
LOLz! It definitely makes the announcement even crazier when you’ve kissed them all! Ashley, who picked option B, explained her thought process behind her Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure co-star, saying:
“Austin and I always say we’re like fraternal twins born very far apart because he’s much younger, and we’ve always had that connection. So I want to say that. But now it’s like what?”
When the Elvis star, 31, was revealed to be her long-lost cousin, she rightfully freaked the f**k out, yelling:
“No wonder we have such a connection! We’ve always said we are brother and sister. That is insane! I literally am gonna cry!”
Awww!!
According to Ancestry, Austin is Ashley’s 10th cousin once removed. They share the same English ancestor Richard Scruggs. Wow!
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Speaking to Us Weekly after the hilarious episode aired on Tuesday, the Frenshe founder gushed:
“I think my reaction on-camera says it all … I couldn’t believe it, and I started to get emotional.”
It seems to be such a wild discovery for her because of the already very strong connection they shared as friends and colleagues, the Merry Happy Whatever alum continued:
“We’ve had an immediate connection since we met, and we’ve been close friends for years. We even joked about being fraternal twins.”
They’ve been close pals since working on the HSM spinoff which premiered in 2011 — and, yes, they were love interests and shared a smooch! Since then, they’ve stayed in touch and Austin was even a groomsman during Ashley’s 2014 wedding to Christopher French. Cute! After the episode finished taping, the pop star ran off to tell the hunky Carrie Diaries alum the good — but very unexpected — news. She reflected:
“I texted him as soon as I heard and he replied right away saying, ‘NO F-ING WAY!’ He was just as shocked as I was. To know this whole time that we’re actually cousins — it’s just so wild.”
Understatement of a lifetime! The Suite Life of Zack and Cody lead went on to express how much the Ancestry results meant to her, adding
“Family has always been so important to me. I love celebrating the holidays with old traditions and starting new ones, and it’s even more special to see Jupiter [her 1-year-old daughter] experience this as she’s growing. I’m definitely going to share my Ancestry discoveries with my family – and I know they’re going to love it just as much as I did.”
Who wouldn’t love being related to Austin Butler?! Just saying!
While it’s pretty awesome to discover Austin’s officially part of the family, the partnership also dug up some new info about another relative near and dear to the performer’s heart: her grandmother Marilyn Keays, whose wedding announcement turned up in the search. She shared:
“When I saw the newspaper article with a photo of my grandmother on her wedding day, it was so moving. She has always been such a strong and independent figure in my life. My daughter is already strong-willed at 18 months, so it must run in the family! It’s so awesome to learn about her big milestones before we knew her as ‘grandma.’”
Aw! Adorable! To watch the hilarity ensue in full, check out the episode (below)! The question about Austin begins at the 10:09 mark.
Can you believe it?! What an insane discovery!!! Thank goodness they never took their on-screen love into the real world or this would have been SO awkward!!
[Image via Disney+ & Ancestry/YouTube & MEGA/WENN]
