Groundbreaking.
Miranda Priestly Is Related To... Miranda Priestly
Meryl Streep and her Devil Wears Prada character’s inspiration, Anna Wintour, are actually distant relatives.
Only Runway HBIC Miranda Priestly could possibly be powerful enough to be related to... herself. Well, sort of. According to Ancestry, Meryl Streep is a distant relative of Anna Wintour, the real-life inspiration for her iconic The Devil Wears Prada character.
Ahead of Streep reprising her role as Miranda in the long-awaited sequel The Devil Wears Prada 2, Ancestry dug into her family history — and discovered that she and Wintour have the same fifth great-grandparents, Thomas Smith and Elizabeth Kinsey, making them sixth cousins.
In an even spookier twist, Smith and Kinsey lived in Bucks County, Penn., just miles away from Lauren Weisberger’s hometown — the author who wrote the film’s namesake novel inspired by her own stint as Wintour’s assistant at Vogue. As Hannah Montana said (in words written by Taylor Swift), “You’ll always find your way back home” — even in the most unexpected ways.
Neither Streep nor Wintour have commented on their newfound cousin status, but if anything, being family would probably only strengthen their relationship. In the two decades since The Devil Wears Prada hit theaters in 2005, Wintour has supported the film in numerous ways, even poking fun at Streep’s characterization of her as Miranda Priestly.
In 2017, she interviewed Streep herself in her Vogue office, making for a true full-circle moment. When asked who was the most challenging woman she’s ever played, Streep nearly said Wintour, making them both chuckle. “We’re not going there, Meryl,” she replied, making Streep clarify, “That wasn’t it anyways. That was fun.”
Most recently, she presented Best Costume Design at the 2026 Oscars alongside Anne Hathaway, who played Miranda’s assistant Andy Sachs. True to her character’s form, Hathaway sought approval of her look — to which Wintour simply put on her signature sunglasses and continued, “And the nominees are...”
However, while attending a performance of the film’s West End musical adaptation in December 2024, Wintour shied away from comparisons between her and the character she inspired. Instead, she told the BBC that it was “for the audience and for the people I work with to decide if there are any similarities between me and Miranda Priestly.”
Whether by blood or by Vogue-approved attitude, Miranda Priestly lives on — and now, it seems, in Meryl Streep’s actual family tree.
