A MyHeritage study traces both actresses back to a 17th-century Cape Cod settler, giving Sweeney’s Monroe comparisons a literal family tree.
For nearly a year, Sydney Sweeney‘s red carpets have been read as a Marilyn Monroe tribute act. Now a genealogy company says the resemblance runs in the family. According to new research from MyHeritage, Sweeney and Monroe are ninth cousins, once removed, and Dakota Johnson, who just played a version of Monroe on screen, turns out to be a distant relative too.
The Family Tree
MyHeritage traced Sweeney and Monroe to a shared ancestor, Ezra Perry, an English settler who lived from about 1625 to 1689 in Sandwich, Massachusetts, the oldest town on Cape Cod. Johnson’s link is even more remote: the company says she is Monroe’s ninth cousin, three times removed.
Some perspective is useful here. Relatives that distant usually share little or no measurable DNA, so this is a paper-trail finding built from historical records rather than a genetic match, and it comes from a company that sells DNA kits and family-tree subscriptions. Roi Mandel, MyHeritage’s director of research, framed it as proof that “humanity is one vast family tree.” That is also, conveniently, the company’s pitch.
Sweeney’s Monroe Moments
None of that makes the story less fun, because Sweeney has been courting the comparison. At the December 2025 premiere of The Housemaid, she wore a white halter dress that drew instant comparisons to Monroe’s subway-grate scene in The Seven Year Itch. At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this year, she chose a vintage Ceil Chapman gown echoing the look Monroe wore on her first LIFE magazine cover in April 1952.
The Monroe branding has been good business. The Housemaid grossed roughly $400 million worldwide, and Lionsgate has already set Sweeney’s return in The Housemaid’s Secret for Dec. 17, 2027. Her brand deals keep making headlines too, including her Novig campaign last month.
Who Has Played Monroe
Sweeney has never played Monroe herself, which may be the most surprising detail of all. Michelle Williams earned an Oscar nomination for My Week With Marilyn in 2011, and Ana de Armas earned one for Andrew Dominik’s Blonde in 2022. Most recently, Johnson and Ellen Burstyn played versions of the star in Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s short film Flesh Impact, which premiered at Venice, where Johnson also had one of the festival’s standout red carpet looks. Johnson, also currently in theaters opposite Anne Hathaway in Verity, now has an unusually personal footnote to that casting.
If Hollywood ever does hand Sweeney a Monroe biopic, the press release writes itself.
