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Julia Roberts said Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King paid hospital bill for her birth

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I was a little known detail about actress Julia Robert's life, but has now become more widely known as Roberts celebrates her 55th birthday.

The actress' parents, Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, ran a theater school in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s.

Roberts said civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. paid the hospital bill for her 1967 birth.

Roberts told journalist Gayle King in an interview for A&E Networks and History Channel's "HISTORYTalks," "one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. And my mom was like, ‘Sure. Come on over,’” the actress said.

Roberts said Coretta Scott King and her mother became friends and later paid the hospital bill.

“They helped us out of a jam,” Julia Roberts said.

The detail about Robert's life gained new traction as fans began sharing clips from the interview to celebrate her birthday.