Meryl Streep’s “The Devil Wears Prada” character Miranda Priestly is thought to be inspired by former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. But it turns out the connection between the two goes deeper than an iconic role and impeccable taste.
Ahead of Streep reprising her role as the head of the fictional Runway magazine for “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” arriving in theaters May 1, Ancestry discovered that the three-time Oscar winner and the fashion mogul are related.
The genealogy company has confirmed that Streep and Wintour share fifth great-grandparents, Thomas Smith and Elizabeth Kinsey, making them sixth cousins, TODAY exclusively revealed April 2.
Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour’s connections.
Smith and Kinsey resided in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Ancestry also shared, which happens to be just 20 miles from where “The Devil Wears Prada” author, Lauren Weisberger, was raised. Weisberger previously worked as Wintour’s assistant before penning her debut novel.
Streep and Wintour have crossed paths multiple times since “The Devil Wears Prada” was released in 2006. Over a decade after Streep first portrayed Miranda Priestly, she met up with Wintour for an interview in her Vogue office. The magazine shared a video of their 2017 sit-down, which featured an intro similar to Miranda Priestly’s dramatic arrival at the beginning of the 2006 flick.
At the time of the video, Streep was starring in the movie “The Post,” in which she played the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Wintour described Graham as her friend in the clip before asking the actor to name the most challenging woman she has ever played.
“Hmm … oh I should say!” Streep began before Wintour laughed and cut her off.
Wintour playfully said, “No, we’re not going there, Meryl.”
The two reunited in September 2025 when they both attended the Dolce & Gabbana Milan Fashion Week show while Streep was filming “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” Variety reported.
Vogue uploaded a video of the interaction on Instagram that showed the two embracing while both wearing sunglasses indoors. The caption read, in part, “Can you please spell Gabbana,” a line Anne Hathaway’s character Andy Sachs asks in the first movie.
“This is my first fashion show,” Streep told Wintour in the clip. Wintour later chatted with Stanley Tucci, who is reprising his role of Nigel Kipling in the sequel, as well as Simone Ashley, who is playing a new character.
A couple weeks before their reunion, Wintour was a guest on “The New Yorker Radio Hour” podcast and revealed how she feels about the comparisons between her and Miranda Priestly.
The Condé Nast global chief content officer and artistic director recalled attending the premiere for “The Devil Wears Prada” 20 years ago while wearing Prada, and “having no idea what the film was going to be about.”
“I think that the fashion industry were very sweetly concerned for me about the film. That it was going to paint me in some kind of difficult light,” she remembered.
Host David Remnick said those close to her might have been worried the portrayal could be “cartoonish.”
Wintour agreed and said, “Yes, a caricature.”
“But first of all it was Meryl Streep, which, fantastic,” she continued. “Then I went to see the film, and I found it highly enjoyable and very funny. Miuccia (Prada) and I talk about it a lot. I say to her, ‘Well it was really good for you.’ You can imagine what she says back.”
She appreciated the film’s humor and wit, and Streep and Emily Blunt’s performances.
“They were all amazing. In the end, I thought it was a fair shot,” Wintour said.
