Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick are reportedly "distant cousins."

The revelation is made on an upcoming episode of PBS genealogy show, Finding Your Roots.

The actor has been married to Kyra for 23 years and they have two children together; Travis, 22, and Sosie, 19.

The show is hosted by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who says the couple "are indeed distant cousins. So talk about six degrees of separation right?"

Ironically, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, is a long held trivia that the world of Hollywood is so small that anyone in the film industry can be linked to Kevin within six steps.

"I want Americans to realise how united we are as a people," Henry said. "There's so much animosity and one of the things that I want the series to do is to show that, deep down, we are all Americans.

"We've been sleeping together from the very beginning of the country."