Whose Grandparents Are These People
Here is a very cute picture of the late Lillian and George Anthony Portell … can you guess who their very famous great granddaughter is?
I realize it’s kinda difficult to venture a guess right off … but if you look closely at Lillian’s face, you might be able to recognize her famous great granddaughter. After the jump, find out who it is …
It’s Britney, bitch! Lillian and George Portell are Britney Spears’s relations on her mama Lynne’s side:
She is the all-American pop princess with a millionaire lifestyle and a global property portfolio. But Britney’s talent has its roots in wartime Britain, when her English grandmother danced the jitterbug at the Royal Opera House before falling in love with an American GI. And as these exclusive photos show Britney bears more than a passing resemblance to her great-grandmother, Lilian. The troubled singer’s great grandfather George Anthony Portell was the son of a Portsmouth newsagent, who joined the Royal Navy in his teens. Her great grandmother Lilian was born in the East End before moving to Tottenham, north London, where the couple met at a local dance. They married a year later in St John’s Parish Church in a joint ceremony with her sister Ruth and her beau Richard Harvey. They had two daughters – Miss Spears’s grandmother also called Lilian in 1924, and then Joan in 1927. Now aged 80 and called Joan Woolmore, Britney’s great-aunt lives in a small terraced house in Northolt, north-west London. She told the Daily Mail: “We came from very humble beginnings but we were very happy. We didn’t have a great deal and we moved around a lot around London – but what both Lilian and I loved to do was dance and play music. My father saved up to send us both for dance classes and piano lessons. He really was a wonderful man. He was kind, gentle and worked very hard. My mother was much stricter but she suffered badly from asthma so spent a lot of time in hospital when we were growing up.” The girls’ passion for music was also encouraged by their aunt and uncle Mary and Desmond Worthy, who played piano and drums for bands in the 1930s. Miss Woolmore said: “Lilian and I liked dancing. During the war we used to go dancing in Covent Garden where they had turned the Royal Opera House into a dance hall. We could jitterbug with the best of them.”
This is so cute … Lynne Spears’s new book Through the Storm is full of personal photos like this. Again, it’s not very salacious information but it is very interesting info for Britney Spears fans like myself. I am not surprised at all that Britney comes from such hearty stock … until I started reading Lynne’s book, I had no idea her mother’s relations were British. Her great grandmother was very pretty … I just love learning this stuff :)
[Source]
RSS
Feedburner
September 17th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
ahh I was right :P
September 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
lmao i thought it was madonna.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
So THAT’s where the mysterious British accent came from!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Don’t feel bad Sara…I thought it was Heidi Montag!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Sara I thought it was Madonna too!!!
September 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
looked like kate hudson to me :)
September 17th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
It’s either Madonna or Britney with Trent :P
I live 30 minutes away from Portsmouth :)
September 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
LOL. Britney looks nothing like her great grandmother. There´s not even a resemblence, nothing.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Um…Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think Brit resembles her great-grandmother at all. Whatevs..
September 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Chalk another vote up for Kate Hudson. I wouldn’t have guessed Britney in a million years.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
It doesn’t look like Britney in that picture of her. But I can see it if you think back to Britney when she started.
Honestly though, her grandmother looks like Alicia Silverstone.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I thought it was whitney port from the hills! the little wrinkles by her nose and sly smile reminded me of one of the many faces Whitney makes!
I wouldn’t have guessed Britney at all…
September 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
first i really thought it would be kate hudson…and PLEASE post up some more interesting facts here about the spears clan from the book! thanks trench:D
September 17th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I thought it was Katy Holmes! haha
But now i can see it does actually really look like Britney!
September 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Wow really? Britney? I thought Anna Faris they have the same squinty eyes and lil smile… ok then? :s
September 17th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I didn’t guess it was Britney, but now that I know and can compaire I think they have the same nose….
September 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I got Kate Hudson too!
September 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Trent, that story sounds way off from the people in the photo. They have to be her grandparents, not great-grandparents. It’s clearly a 1940’s picture, judging from the clothing and hairstyles. My grandparents also met in England in the 1940’s and their photos are very similar. Also, it’s very hard to be and American GI in the British Royal Navy! ;-P
September 17th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
man this is all so hilarious! apparently these two have some connection to the tiny little island i live on…Malta. Probably to do with the fact that George was in the Royal Navy and Malta was a british colony for quite a looong time. So ever since the local news paper ran the story, everyone’s been coming up to me telling me i’m related to Brit, cos my surname is Portelli…and Portell is supposed to be a corruption of that. It just cracks me up.
September 17th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
thought it was debra messings great-grandma….
September 17th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Kate Hudson.
September 17th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I thought SAMANTHA RONSON – LOL
September 17th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
i guessed katie holmes
September 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I thought it was Natalie Portman.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I knew it was Brit. I can totally see the resemblance!!
September 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Btw, it was totally the ears and eyes that gave it away for me…
September 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Doesn’t really look like her at all.
September 17th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I thought it was Ashley Tisdale!
September 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
YAY! I guessed right =)
September 17th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
i thought it was katie holmes lol
September 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Had to be Britney Spears with those Ears! They are an exact match!
September 17th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Haha, I thought Debra Messing for a second too.. but look at where the nose starts just between the eyebrows and eyes. They both had that sort of wider set nose, not thin. Don’t know if I am making any sense. Also, similar smile in my opinion.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
There is only one answer when it comes to this website…
Didn’t find this even slightly fascinating, don’t understand the obsession with Britney at all??
September 17th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I thought it was Katie Holmes Too!
September 17th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I thought it looked like sara mcglochlan (sorry for the bad spelling). lol.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
hey lori! thought it was debra messings great-grandma 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
September 18th, 2008 at 5:51 am
She also has some Maltese blood in her.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:46 am
i thought it was charlotte church..
September 18th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I thought of Natalie Portman too. I also might have ventured a Brittany Murphy.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:25 am
yeah, it had to be Brit, the face shape gave it away. Cute story too! :)
September 18th, 2008 at 11:16 am
i thought kate hudson too! wow i’m glad i wasn’t alone on this…
September 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
i thought it was dita von teese! lol.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I assumed it was Britney cause you loves her! But also the resemblance is there in the nose area.
September 19th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
It’s very much in the nose and the ears!! Lynne also has her nose. I hadn’t a clue when guessing though…