Cory Booker ‘very happy’ to find out he’s RuPaul’s cousin: ‘Hope he and I can have a family reunion soon’
Cory Booker would love a family reunion with his newly discovered cousin RuPaul.
The New Jersey senator chatted with Wendy Williams about his recent family news in a new interview that aired on her talk show Tuesday.
Booker, who found out about his relationship with the Emmy-winning host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” after participating in the PBS show “Finding Your Roots,” couldn’t hide his excitement when he was asked about it on “The Wendy Williams Show."
“Cory is RuPaul’s cousin!” Williams said to the Democratic lawmaker during a virtual interview.
“Yes! Yes!” Booker agreed excitedly, explaining to the daytime diva how he found out about his genetic link to the world’s most famous drag queen.
“Both he and I were subjects of this show, ‘Finding Your Roots.’ Henry Louis Gates has a show where he traces your roots and ancestry,” he explained.
Booker participated in the show in 2012. RuPaul was featured in a recent episode.
“Since [Gates] keeps the data of past people, he saw RuPaul and I have a very strong common DNA chain which demonstrates that we’re very close cousins,” he said.
“I love RuPaul. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him since the news was revealed, but I was very happy about that news and hope he and I can have a family reunion soon.”
The former presidential hopeful also had a lot of love for the Emmy-nominated talk show host, whom he praised for having “such great energy.”
“I hope people — when they watch you — they feel liberated to be more of themselves. We don’t need more dull carbon copies in life, we need people who are unapologetically truly who they are.”
Booker, who has been dating 41-year-old actress and activist Rosario Dawson for about two years (the couple confirmed their relationship in March 2019), opened up about living with a significant other for the first time in his life.
“Look, we all had that significant other in college that spent more nights with you. But I’m talking about the whole official move-in,” he said.
“You got your furniture drawers, all that sharing everything. I’ve never done that before. And it’s a blessing. We’re at the beginning of that process; but it’s been wonderful. And I think my mom had the same reaction: ‘It’s about time!’”
Before he was elected the first African-American U.S. Senator from New Jersey in 2013, Booker became a household name during his time as the 38th mayor of Newark, N.J., from 2006 to 2013.
He told Williams, another famous New Jersey figure, that despite all the current troubles, the state remains strong.
“We really have it bad over there,” Williams pointed out. “Except for hope.”
Booker agreed, celebrating “the amount of people I see helping each other around our state.”
But he also stressed the importance of voting.
“I want people to understand that this election is part of the process,” he said. “If people are frustrated with the status quo and how this pandemic is being dealt with, it really is a life or death issue for you to go out and vote ... and if you want a change you got to be a part of that change.”
