The Chase's Anne Hegerty shocked to learn she's RELATED to The Queen
No way!
Last updated 5th Apr 2022
As the brand new series of DNA Journey hits our screens tonight (5th April), The Chase star Anne Hegerty has revealed she was left in shock to learn she's related to Queen Elizabeth II.
That's right! Anne, who has been apart of The Chase team since in 2010, discovered her family history on the ITV show, learning she's the 19th cousin to Queen Elizabeth II.
As if this wasn't a big enough discovery, Anne also discovered King Robert the Bruce was her 20-times great grandfather.
63-year-old Anne, who is also known as 'The Governess', does reveal on the show that her grandmother had told her about her relation to Queen Elizabeth II, but she didn't believe her, thinking it was just a made up story.
She said: "Wow, that is cool. But my grandmother was the most tremendous liar.
"My aunt said she was a romancer and she'd embroider life a bit, so I always felt that anything from my grandmother had to be taken with a pinch of salt."
She later added: "My mother was always deeply disapproving of the idea of anyone knowing about their ancestors. She'd say, "It doesn't prove a thing, dear."
"As a child I was always curious about this stuff and my mother was always very repressive.
"I think it was because on my mother's mother's side there's quite a bit of posh, and my mum thought I'd grow up to be a terrible snob. But I've already grown up to be a terrible snob, so really there's nothing to hide."
The amazing discovery was found on the brand new series of ITV's DNA Journey, which airs at 9pm on Tuesday 5th April.
Other celebs such as Dancing On Ice's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and Maureen Lipman and Rula Lenska will all take part.
Check out all of the things you didn't know about The Chase:
The Chasers are the best of friends
Despite their rivalry throughout the show, Anne 'The Governess' Hegerty, Mark 'The Beast' Labbett, Shaun 'The Dark Destroyer' Wallace, Paul 'The Sinnerman' Sinha and Jenny 'The Vixen' Ryan are all good friends outside of the show and regularly hang out.
Jenny and Anne even quiz together on Monday nights!
Bradley Walsh can film up to three shows a day
There has been thousands of episodes of The Chase, and show host Bradley has hosted every single one. Filming for the show now has a quick turnaround, and only takes around two hours, with 12 episodes recorded over a period of four days.
Before The Chase, The Chasers all had pretty normal (but intellectual) real-life jobs
Mark used to be a Maths teacher (he is a mathematician after all), Anne was a proof reader, Paul is a stand-up comedian, Jenny is a writer, Shaun is still a criminal barrister and newest Chaser Darragh Ennis was a former contestant!
The Chase has been running for 12 years!
The first episode aired on 29th June 2009.
Contestants are completely unaware of which Chaser they are facing.
Bradley has no clue either.
Over the years, hundreds of thousands of questions have been asked.
The Chase has a team of around eight question writers from all sorts of backgrounds, including Olav Bjortomt, the number one quizzer in the world!
Bradley Walsh doesn't see the questions beforehand either, saying: "The second the contestant sees the question, that's when I see the question."
The Chase airs in nine countries
There are nine international versions of The Chase, with shows airing in Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and the United States.
Some of the shows also feature familiar faces, as both Mark Labbett (The Beast) and Anne Hegerty (The Governess) both appear on the Australian version. Mark Labbett also stars on the United States version.
The Chasers all give 100% and get annoyed when they lose
The Chasers are officially the most competitive people in the world. Facts. They're not a fan of losing, even when the contestants (who are sometimes celebrities) are playing for charity.
Contestants do beat The Chasers, though! In September 2021, 20-year-old Eden took home a whopping £75k after beating Darragh Ennis. He won the biggest amount of prize money ever won on daytime TV show by a solo player. Impressive.
Meanwhile, it's been confirmed Anne will miss out on the brand new series of popular show Beat The Chasers, after contracting COVID-19 on the week of filming for series five.
She told fans on Twitter: 'Unfortunately I’ve contracted Covid-19 so won’t be filming this series of #BeatTheChasers.'
'The fantastic @Issa25 will be stepping in for me and I’m looking forward to watching the series when it’s on air later this year. I feel fine, but I'm still positive! (in all respects)'. (sic)
Now read:
All the things you never knew about The Chase
All of the TV shows we can’t wait to return
Anne Hegerty reveals why she won't appear on next series of Beat The Chasers