Drag icon RuPaul makes an emotional discovery about his family history in a new video from the PBS series Finding Your Roots.RuPaul, 60, met with host Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
to discuss three members of his family, traced to RuPaul via genealogy and DNA testing. This anecdote dates to 1804, in which a white slave owner freed RuPaul’s great, great, grandmother Nanette and her brother Andre from slavery.
Said plantation owner, a man called Jacques Fontenette also refused to free Nanette and Andre’s mother, referred to as Negro Julie, from slavery.In the clip, RuPaul and Gates speculate as to why.“I wonder what precipitated giving them their freedom,” RuPaul wonders aloud.“Why do you think?” Gates presses.Related: RuPaul calls out ‘Drag Race’.