'Pretty Woman' star Julia Roberts (55) has revealed a little-known anecdote about her birth in 1967.
The bill for the delivery in a hospital in the American state of Georgia was settled by the black civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) and his wife Coretta Scott King, the Oscar winner ("Erin Brockovich") recently said in a TV interview.
Her parents, who ran a children's drama school in Atlanta, didn't have enough money.
A video clip from the interview as part of a history program is doing the rounds on the Internet.
Bernice King, daughter of the 1968 murdered civil rights hero, shared the short video on Twitter on Monday.
She said she was "grateful" that Roberts shared this story and that so many people were impressed.
In the interview, Roberts explained how the friendship between the two families came about in the 1960s.
Coretta Scott King called her mother to ask if King's children could go to the Roberts drama school.
They would not have been included anywhere else.
At that time, it was unusual, especially in the US South, to teach black and white children together in an acting class.
Roberts said her mother immediately agreed.
The Kings then bailed them out when money was tight when they were born on October 28, 1967.