Yes, Anne Hathaway is an Eagles fan. This is why.

While a certain pop princess from Berks County seems swayed in her fandom, the princess of Genovia hasn&#8217;t wavered from her Philly roots.

<img decoding="async" src="https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/v2/M4VV4OEDJ5FHDTWFP2T6UON5FI.jpg?auth=74390914522b4b7db9e5df78d493eaf1aacf03d37fea14b9a81d43997aa38937&amp;width=760&amp;height=507&amp;smart=true" alt="Anne Hathaway poses for a portrait to promote the film 'Eileen' at the Latinx House during the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)">
The story goes Lady Diana, Princess of Wales was in Philadelphia in September 1982 for the funeral of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco and proud Philadelphian, when she met Eagles statistician Jack Edelstein, who made sure Princess Di received the now iconic Eagles jacket. Who cares if the story is true?

Sunday night, as Anne Hathaway cheered on the Eagles from the stands of the Superdome, wearing a sleeveless white top with a green sweater casually thrown over her shoulders, it was clear that the Princess of Genovia had also joined the ranks of royal Eagles fans.

But since when? Could it be that Brooklyn- and Millburn, N.J.-native Anne Hathaway was also a fan of the Birds? A quick look at her family tree makes clear that Eagles fandom is in her blood.

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway, perhaps named after William Shakespeare’s wife, is not just an Eagles fan but is, ancestrally, Philly royalty. Her maternal grandfather Joe McCauley was one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated radio personalities from 1941 through 1968. McCauley, nicknamed the city’s “Morning Mayor,” was a WIP-AM jockey who had the likes of Frank Sinatra call into his show. In 1999, McCauley was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame.

The princess’ Phillyness doesn’t stop there. McCauley’s daughter (and Anne’s mother) Kate, also an actor, was born in Philadelphia and grew up summering in Cape May.

“One summer, someone told my mother that Cape May Playhouse was looking for a little girl to be in their production of South Pacific,” Kate McCauley Hathaway said to Cape May magazine in 2019. “When I heard this, I rode my own bicycle down there, went in and said, ‘I hear you need a little girl for South Pacific.’” Every summer, she’d go to the Playhouse artistic director Paul Barry asking for roles and then just never stopped.

<img decoding="async" src="https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/v2/H7ESMUWAIBHILN43IYRH6DYGZQ.jpg?auth=153fb45f9079adda00e41560f3df95e51bee7267409f0f8f0a85eed09598a3c2&amp;width=760&amp;smart=true" alt="A July 2, 1973 Philadelphia Inquirer review of La Salle Theater's 'Cabaret' which starred Kate McCauley, actor Anne Hathaway's mother, as Sally Bowles">
South Pacific was a play McCauley Hathaway kept going back to throughout her career, including once during her brief first marriage, when, as Anne Hathaway said in a 2018 Mother’s Day post, “she was four months pregnant with my older brother when she played this part and did cartwheels on stage every dang night — twice on matinee days.”

Even before that, when McCauley Hathaway was a student at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, she was in a high school production of South Pacific. That’s where she first met and befriended La Salle College High School’s Jerry Hathaway, a chorus boy on the production. They remained friends as Kate went on to study at La Salle University on a musical theater scholarship.

A Philadelphia Inquirer review of her 1973 performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret notes: “Kate McCauley rips into the title song of Cabaret as if she had never heard of Liza Minnelli.”

Soon enough, Jerry and Kate fell in love, got married, moved north, and gave birth to the Oscar-winning Anne and Thomas, who works in music licensing.

So why is Anne Hathaway an Eagles fan, you ask?

It’s because this is where her roots are. And while some pop princesses from Berks County may have been swayed, real princesses never waver.

As Queen Clarisse Renaldi said to Princess of Genovia, Mia Thermopolis, “You cannot quit being who you are.”

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Anne Hathaway, Eagles fan? Her Philadelphia roots, explained.