Dylan Sprouse has shared a surprising discovery about his family history, leading him to make a bold claim about himself and his twin brother, Cole Sprouse. During an appearance on the Wildmen podcast on 20 October 2026, the actor explained how tracing his family tree led him to find links between his parents' family lines.
The 34-year-old actor said he began looking more closely at his ancestry through a family history service, hoping to learn more about relatives he had never met. His findings led him to question why his family has so many sets of twins, although his claim has not been independently confirmed as proof that his parents were closely related by blood.
A Surprising Family Discovery
Dylan explained that his search began when he started finding relatives he had never met before, which gave him a chance to learn more about his family's past. He said his father's side of the family was 'pretty fractured', so he began speaking to new relatives and comparing the details they knew about their shared history.
As he looked deeper into his family tree, Dylan said he found that his mother's and father's family lines had crossed through marriage generations ago. He linked the earlier connection to the family's move towards California during the Gold Rush, a period in the 19th century when many people travelled west in search of gold and new chances.
Explaining what he found, Dylan said, 'And then, they diverged, and then they married again [through] my mom and my dad, like, last generation.' He used this discovery to describe himself and Cole as 'children of incest', though he did not provide any specific scientific proof to that statement.
Why Twins Raised Questions
The family history search also led Dylan to look more closely at the number of twins among his relatives, which he said became another clue as he compared the different branches of his family tree. He revealed that there were seven sets of twins across four generations, a pattern that made him wonder whether his family had a shared genetic link that could explain the repeated births.
However, Dylan said he later learned that his father's uncles were also identical twins, adding another detail to his growing picture of the family's history. This discovery led him to question whether the two sides of his family were more closely linked than he had first thought, although the number of twins alone cannot prove that relatives share a close blood relationship.
Dylan also shared a story about an aunt who, according to his account, had absorbed her twin in the womb before birth. He claimed that a cyst removed from her shoulder contained hair and teeth, which he connected to the unusual family history he had been exploring.
Cole Sprouse's Reaction
After making the discovery, Dylan said he called Cole to share what he had found and explain why he believed their family history was more complicated than they had realised. He recalled trying to show his twin brother a picture that he thought supported his theory, hoping Cole would take a closer look at the information he had gathered.
According to Dylan, Cole was not interested in examining the evidence and did not want to spend time discussing the claim during their phone call. Dylan said his brother dismissed the suggestion before hanging up, leaving him unable to share the full explanation he had prepared.
Cole later addressed the attention surrounding the story in a post on Instagram Stories, making light of the headline about his family background. He joked, 'No media training on earth can prep you to read this clickbait headline at 10am,' suggesting that the claim had caught him off-guard.
What The Family History Shows
Dylan and Cole were born in Italy to Matthew Sprouse and Melanie Wright, who married in 1990 and later divorced when the twins were young. The brothers went on to build successful acting careers, becoming widely known for playing Zack and Cody Martin in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck.
Dylan's account points to connections between branches of his extended family, but the details he shared do not by themselves prove that his parents were closely related by blood. Establishing the exact relationship would require reliable family records showing how the two family lines connect and how many generations separate the relatives involved.
For now, Dylan's comments have drawn attention to an unexpected part of his family history and the questions he raised while researching his ancestry.
