For years, fashion insiders have whispered that Meryl Streep’s icy, exacting Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada was modelled after Anna Wintour. Now, just ahead of the sequel’s release, reality has delivered a twist even sharper than Priestly’s one-liners: the two women are actually related.
A genealogy discovery reveals shared ancestry – turning inspiration into a real-life family link.A couture coincidence rooted in historyAccording to Ancestry, Streep and Wintour share fifth great-grandparents, making them sixth cousins, as first reported by TODAY. The ancestors lived in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County – close to where Lauren Weisberger, Wintour’s former assistant, grew up before writing the novel that inspired the film.
The overlap adds a cinematic layer – fiction looping back into lineage.When Miranda met WintourWintour has long taken the comparison in stride. Reflecting on the film, she said, “Yes, a caricature,” on The New Yorker Radio Hour, before adding, “But first of all it was Meryl Streep, which, fantastic… Then I went to see the film, and I found it highly enjoyable.” She ultimately called it “a fair shot,” praising performances, including Emily Blunt. They have since shared multiple public moments – from a playful 2017 Vogue sit-down to a stylish reunion at Milan Fashion Week in 2025.
With Streep set to return as Miranda Priestly, the story now is not just art imitating life, but family ties quietly shaping one of pop culture’s most iconic characters.
