Justin Theroux is tracing back his roots, and seems shocked to learn about this one ancestor.
The actor and filmmaker got a crash course in family history—and let’s just say, it wasn’t all warm and fuzzy.
In an exclusive clip from the March 2 episode of No Taste Like Home, the Leftovers star, 53, teams up with Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski to trace his roots. And what they find? A long-lost ancestor with a story straight out of a historical drama.
Theroux learns about Alessandro, an orphaned relative, while visiting a former foundling home with historian Nick Terpstra.
Right away, things take a somber turn.
“I can see that he’s abandoned within hours of being born, and that usually indicates that the child is illegitimate,” Terpstra reveals.
“And this is the thing about these homes. They’re charitable homes, but they’re also a way that, if I can put this nicely, wealthy men can carry on extramarital liaisons and not have to worry about the outcome.”
Theroux, dressed in a dark green shirt and black fedora, listens intently. Meanwhile, Porowski—clearly not prepared for the scandalous history lesson—lets out a shocked, “Woah.”
The plot thickens when Theroux shares that Alessandro was rumored to be a tailor with a talent for working with silk. Turns out, there’s a grim explanation for that, too.
“It’s interesting because silk is one of the biggest industries in Italy at that time,” Terpstra explains.
“But the thing about that is a lot of these orphanages were set up by silk merchants, both to care for those children, but also then to provide a labor force that would allow them to get some of their own work done. So it was child labor.”
And if that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, the historian reveals that the diet in orphanages during the 19th century was so poor, many children suffered from malnutrition.
“Conditions within the orphanages were horrendous,” Terpstra says. “It was such malnutrition, the death rates for those children who stayed in the orphanage were phenomenal.”
Ouch.
But there is one silver lining. “So, to survive in the orphanage,” Terpstra adds, “he is one lucky kid.”
Theroux, taking in the heavy news, manages a small, bittersweet smile. Because if Alessandro hadn’t beaten the odds, well—no Justin Theroux. And that, in itself, is a pretty wild thought.
