Warning: Claim to Fame Season 3 spoilers ahead. As if having the two most famous celebrity relatives in Claim to Fame history wasn’t enough, Season 3 contestants Shane and Dedrick are also related to each other, though not in the way fans might suspect.
More: Claim to Fame Season 3 spoilers and who each contestant is related to
Shane and Dedrick are two of the 11 contestants on Season 3 of Claim to Fame, ABC‘s reality TV competition series in which relatives of celebrities must correctly guess each other’s famous family members while keeping their own a secret. The series, which is hosted by brothers Kevin Jonas and Frankie Jonas and first premiered in 2022, has featured stars like Alicia Keys, Dolly Parton, and Tom Hanks. But no one’s level of fame compares to Shane and Dedrick’s celebrity relatives on Claim to Fame Season 3. To make things even more interesting, Shane and Dedrick are actually related. But not in the way you may think.
While Shane and Dedrick aren’t biologically related, they do have a secret connection on Claim to Fame Season 3 thanks to their celebrity relatives.
Shane’s grandfather is actor Marlon Brando, while Dedrick’s uncle is singer Michael Jackson. Though Brando and Jackson aren’t related, Brando’s son, Miko Brando (Shane’s father), was a former bodyguard for Jackson. Reddit users have also shared a photo of Miko and Shane as a kid with Jackson.
Shane also hinted at his connection to Jackson in the premiere of Claim to Fame Season 3 when he revealed that he’d been to both Elvis Presley’s Graceland and Jackson’s Neverland, which led the cast to believe that he was related to Jackson. “I’ve been to Graceland and Neverland. I even had birthdays there,” he said, to which a cast member asked, “Is it everything they say it is?” Shane replied, “And more.”
In a confessional interview, Dedrick hinted at Shane’s threat to his game because of his relation to Jackson. “Apparently, Shane. He’s gone up to Neverland Valley Ranch. He’s met Michael Jackson,” Dedrick said. Danny also speculated that Shane was related to Jackson. “He must be related to a Jackson because you don’t just get into Neverland,” Danny told his cast mates.
Miko is Brando’s son from his marriage to his second wife, Movita Castaneda, whom he was married to from 1960 to 1968. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 2004, Miko revealed that one of the last people that Brando saw before his death on July 1, 20024, was Jackson. “The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time, it was with Michael Jackson,” Miko said. “He loved it … [He] had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service.”
Jackson also attended Brando’s memorial service, along with actors Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson, and Warren Beatty, according to The Los Angeles Times. While Brando is Shane’s grandfather, Jackson is Dedrick’s uncle. Dedrick is the son of Jackson’s older brother, Sigmund Esco “Jackie” Jackson, who shares Dedrick, whose real name is Sigmund “Siggy” Esco Jackson Jr., with his first wife Enid Adren.
Executive producer Eric Detwiler also hinted at a connection between two Claim to Fame Season 3 contestants in an interview with TV Insider in June 2024. When the initial casting options started coming in, we found that there were some interesting uncovered connections between potential contestants that we really wanted to take advantage of,” he said. “This is going to cause some mind-bending confusion and then some pretty epic reveals based on who these people are and where they come from.”
He added, “Every season, we’ve tried to best ourselves in terms of the level of iconic celebrity relatives that we can book for the show, but it really all starts with thinking about what are the categories we want to explore each season? Who are the people that are at the top of the game in [their respective] categories?”
Claim to Fame is available to stream on Hulu.
