Winslet: I’d be disgusted if I was from wealth
KATE WINSLET has told of her relief at discovering that her ancestors were peasants, saying she would have been “upset and disgusted” to have come from wealth.
The actress contacted the BBC’S Who Do You Think You Are? programme and asked to be featured because she wanted to know more about her heritage.
She learnt her maternal great-greatgrandfather came to the UK from Sweden in 1884 to work as a tailor, which “basically means I’m an immigrant”.
The most affecting discovery for Winslet was that her great-great-greatgreat-grandfather, Anders Jonsson, was imprisoned in Sweden for stealing potatoes and honey to feed his family. He died in prison from typhoid and one of his five children died from malnutrition. Winslet said he was kept as a “slave” in Sweden, where he worked as a groom and was paid not in money but in tokens which could only be exchanged on the estate owned by his employer.
The Titanic star said she “would have been upset and disgusted if I had come from wealth or royalty”.
She said: “My roots are socialist, working class and, in a funny way, my parents frowned upon the wealthy. Mum and Dad went to Oxford for their honeymoon and we always had holidays out of the back of the van.”
She told Radio Times that discovering how poor her ancestors were made sense of her life. “I come from a long line of impoverished people on both sides of my family, which perhaps explains why I’ve tried to instil my parents’ values into my kids,” she said.
“People never believe me, but my children aren’t over-privileged. We just don’t live like that.”
Winslet has three children, the youngest with Edward Abel Smith, nephew of Sir Richard Branson and previously known as Ned Rocknroll. She also has a son from her marriage to Sam Mendes, the director, and a daughter with Jim Threapleton, the filmmaker.
Winslet was born and raised in Reading, to Sally and Roger Winslet. Her father was a struggling actor who worked in various jobs, including as a labourer, to support the family.