Justin Theroux shockingly learns about lengthy misplaced ancestor from orphanage

Justin Theroux tracks household data  

Justin Theroux is tracing again his roots, and appears shocked to find out about this one ancestor.

The actor and filmmaker  acquired a crash course in household historical past—and let’s simply say, it wasn’t all heat and fuzzy.

In an unique clip from the March 2 episode of No Style Like Dwelling, the Leftovers star, 53, groups up with Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski to hint his roots. And what they discover? A protracted-lost ancestor with a narrative straight out of a historic drama.

Theroux learns about Alessandro, an orphaned relative, whereas visiting a former foundling residence with historian Nick Terpstra. 

Immediately, issues take a somber flip.

“I can see that he’s abandoned within hours of being born, and that usually indicates that the child is illegitimate,” Terpstra reveals. 

“And this is the thing about these homes. They’re charitable homes, but they’re also a way that, if I can put this nicely, wealthy men can carry on extramarital liaisons and not have to worry about the outcome.”

Theroux, wearing a darkish inexperienced shirt and black fedora, listens intently. In the meantime, Porowski—clearly not ready for the scandalous historical past lesson—lets out a shocked, “Woah.”

The plot thickens when Theroux shares that Alessandro was rumored to be a tailor with a expertise for working with silk. Seems, there’s a grim rationalization for that, too.

“It’s interesting because silk is one of the biggest industries in Italy at that time,” Terpstra explains. 

“But the thing about that is a lot of these orphanages were set up by silk merchants, both to care for those children, but also then to provide a labor force that would allow them to get some of their own work done. So it was child labor.”

And if that wasn’t heartbreaking sufficient, the historian reveals that the food regimen in orphanages through the nineteenth century was so poor, many kids suffered from malnutrition.

“Conditions within the orphanages were horrendous,” Terpstra says. “It was such malnutrition, the death rates for those children who stayed in the orphanage were phenomenal.”

Ouch.

However there may be one silver lining. “So, to survive in the orphanage,” Terpstra provides, “he is one lucky kid.”