Amanda Seyfried discovered stunning information about her family history that left the Oscar-nominee bewildered and “sad.”
The “Mean Girls” actress, 39, was astounded to learn that her third great-grandfather was murdered during a clip from the season 11 premiere of Ancestry’s “Finding Your Roots” obtained by Entertainment Weekly.
Harvard scholar and host, Henry Louis Gates Jr., first told the “Les Miserables” star “your third great-grandfather was murdered,” and then he asked “have you ever heard this story before?”
Seyfried claimed she was unaware and Gates revealed what he discovered about the tragedy.
Gates used old newspaper clippings from the early 1900s to show Seyfried all about John P. Elbert’s death, the grandfather of Seyfried’s great-grandfather.
“Oh my God, what? Oh my God,” Seyfried exclaimed as she was shown the old clippings.
Elbert was a “well-known retired banker, a good citizen and inoffensive man,” according to the article.
During an evening in 1905, her ancestor was reportedly shot three times at his house and became “so seriously wounded that he cannot possibly recover.”
The dramatic clip showed Seyfried reacting to graphic details about how Elbert’s “hand was probably on the doorknob” of his back door “when from between the outhouse and the grape arbor which screens it stepped a man who fired three shots at him point blank at a range not more than a yard.”
“Oh my God, that’s so sad!” Seyfried said.
Seyfried then shared how she felt bad for her third-great grandmother, also named Amanda, and their children.
The Pennsylvania-native was taken aback by the new information.
“It’s weird, I don’t know him but yet he’s family, and I’m just like, ‘How dare they?’ Like, find justice!” Seyfried suggested.
Gates has been investigating and revealing the shocking history of A-listers ancestors for over a decade on the Primetime Emmy-nominated program.
In 2023, Julia Roberts found out she was not actually a “Roberts” after a DNA test showed the “Pretty Woman” performer’s great-great-grandmother had an affair with a married man after her husband passed away.
Meanwhile, Ben Affleck reportedly wanted the PBS show to hide the fact that one of his ancestors owned slaves, according to a Sony email hack.
Seyfried’s episode called “Larger Than Life” will be the season 11 premiere on PBS Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 7 pm.
PBS teased that the premiere will show the pasts of both Lea Salonga and Amanda Seyfried “are every bit as dramatic as the characters they’ve played on stage and screen, telling stories of relatives who survived heart-wrenching ordeals.”