TIL Benedict Cumberbatch is the third cousin, 16 times removed from King Richard III who he played in a British miniseries.

Think you got that backwards. [Third] cousin means distance in relation, "[N] removed" refers to how many generations apart they are.

IIRC, third cousin is pretty close, n times removed is just generation gap. I mean it makes little difference, genetically, but being that close to a royal within written history is probably a good indication of generational wealth.

I once heard that everyone on earth is 42nd cousin or closer

Very, very, veeery distant relative's.

Absolutely nothing!

Kinda sorta. Cousins mean you share grandparents. Second cousins share great-grandparents. Third cousins share great-great-grandparents.

The the "removed" refers to generations. My first cousin's kid is my first cousin, once removed. His kid (my cousin's grandparent) will be my first cousin, twice removed. So 16x removed would be 14x great-grandparent/child.

In other words, Benedict Cumberbatch's 14x great-grandparent shared a great-great-grandparent with... Was it a king we were talking about? I already forgot OP.

laughs in temujin

I remember a professor at uni telling us that at some time in the future each of us will either be the ancestor of every living human or of none.

Equally, if you go back far enough, you will find a common ancestor with every other living person, thus making us all related.

While that seems unintuitive – what about the members of some remote tribe without contact to civilisation? –, keep in mind that even the most remote tribe has to have contact with some neighbouring people . Otherwise they wouldn't have enough genetic diversity. And those neighbours are in contact with their neighbours and so on.

Edit: Changed "intuitive" to "unintuitive"... Oops

His parents are both longstanding actors, and appeared as his parents in Sherlock.

Removed essentially means "separated by a generation", so I doubt you're 15 generations removed from Melania.

I assume it's more like 15th cousin 3 times removed.

Truly a cancer on mankind

Not true, there are also a few immigrants holding on for dear life!

To bring it back to Shakespeare:

Adam's sons are my brethren, and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

Yes! Here's a nice summary of the recovery. https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-discovery-of-king-richard-iiis-burial-site

If youre a history buff, I highly recommend History Calling's video on Richard III and the loss and recovery of his body. It's lengthy but well researched and has lots of interesting context.

Yeah. TIL