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Towie star believes she is related to the Ripper

BBC Gemma Collins is wearing a white bodysuit with a cream coat draped over her shoulders. She is smiling at the camera with her hands on her leg. The room she is in has a large round table and six tall bookshelves.BBC
Gemma Collins said it must have been "a shocker" for relatives to discover they were related to her

TV personality Gemma Collins believes she is related to notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper after researching her family history.

The long-serving star of The Only Way is Essex (Towie) said it was a "bizarre" theory that emerged from learning her ancestors' roots in Spitalfields, east London.

It came during filming for the BBC's latest instalment of Who Do You Think You Are?, which is set to air on 26 September.

"No-one knows who the ripper was, but we lived next door to where a lot of his victims were being killed. You just don't know," Collins, 43, said.

"I think I was related to him... It's just bizarre, isn't it? Could it be my family? Could he be alluded to be my family?"

BBC/Joan Collins Gemma Collins and her mother, Joan. Both are sitting at a table and smiling at the camera. Joan is wearing a white shirt while Gemma is wearing a white T-shirt with a black top over itBBC/Joan Collins
Gemma Collins and her mother, Joan, who have both been in Towie

During filming, Collins found her family lived on Foulness Island, east of Southend-on-Sea, in the 18th Century.

Their roots then spread into east London, seeing them live in Dorset Street, Spitalfields – where the fifth Ripper murder took place – and more recently in Dagenham.

'Bittersweet and amazing'

She told BBC News it was "unbelievable" to have lived so close to her mother's cousin, who the family had previously lost contact with.

"Mum always remembered Christine and then we discovered she’s only 20 minutes down the road from us," Collins said.

"Also, what a shocker it’s been for them in their life to wake up and be told 'You’re related to the GC'.

"It must’ve been one of those zombie apocalypse moments. [Thankfully] we all got on like a house on fire."

Getty Images Foulness Island. In the foreground there are rusted pillars, which are the remains of an old oil tank, and sea water. In the background there is shingle and clusters of seaweed and rocksGetty Images
Foulness Island is today owned by the Ministry of Defence and has only about 150 residents

Collins, who lives near Chelmsford, said during the show she found out her grandmother had not abandoned her mother, Joan, who has also appeared on Towie.

Instead, historians told her how it was most likely that Joan was taken away from her mother by the state.

"It was very overwhelming, very, very bizarre, to find out all this stuff we've not known for so long. It's bittersweet and amazing," Collins said.

"It’s been very cathartic putting my mum’s mind at rest about so much stuff that was unanswered for her."

Collins added that finding her deepest roots laid in Essex was "the icing on the cake".

"To be confirmed as a fully-fledged East-Ender that went out to Essex can only mean one thing – I need a starring role in Eastenders," she said.

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