Jimmy Kimmel sparks major debate after fans learn reason he has secured Italian citizenship
He's not the first celebrity with similar ideas
Jimmy Kimmel revealed in a recent interview that he has now secured Italian citizenship, and his news has left people super divided.
The comedian and late-night TV host revealed that he'd gotten Italian citizenship via his maternal grandmother. According to Kimmel, his mother's grandparents immigrated from Ischia, Naples, to the US, with his grandmother originating from a town called Candida in Campania.
In June, he appeared at the Italian Republic Day event in Los Angeles, where he spoke about his Italian heritage and his recent citizenship.
"I have just obtained citizenship, thanks to my beloved grandmother Edith, whose family came from Candida, in the province of Avellino. She used to repeat to me, ‘You have the brain of a hamster!'" he told the audience (via The Guardian).
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And in a new interview with fellow comedian Sarah Silverman on her podcast, The Sarah Silverman Podcast, the pair discussed the state of the US under President Donald Trump’s leadership.
Kimmel has long been a critic of Trump and has taken shots at the Republican president since before his first time in the White House.
Silverman noted that she'd seen a lot of Americans attempt to obtain citizenship elsewhere after his re-election, to which Kimmel replied: "I do have... I did get Italian citizenship."
He then continued: “What’s going on [with Trump] is as bad as you thought it was gonna be. I feel like it’s probably even worse than [Trump] would like it to be.”
And the response was mixed online, with some people supporting his decision.
One Reddit user wrote that they 'don't blame him at all', while another said: "Good for him. If I could, I’d be outta here in a heartbeat."
However, others argued that Kimmel was privileged to have the option to get a second passport, as one person commented: "Must be nice to pack up and relocate internationally with ease."
A second said: “I'm kinda bitter about all of these rich people who are able to just jet off to a different country to avoid the consequences of Trump but will swoop back in when its convenient lol.”
Other celebrities who've emigrated following Trump's re-election
Since Trump's second ascension to the Oval Office, a few US celebrities have booked it to other countries.
Rosie O’Donnell, who has had many public spats with the President, moved to Ireland, with Trump going an extra step by threatening to 'take away her citizenship'.
Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, made the move over the pond to the UK. From her home in Gloucestershire, she told the BBC: "We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, 'He got in.'
"And we're like, 'We're staying here'."
Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria also said in 2024 that she and her family were splitting their time between Mexico and Spain, and said the decision was influenced by the US's 'changing vibe' after the pandemic, high taxation in California, and Trump's re-election.
The actor acknowledged to Marie Claire that she was fortunate to move when others couldn't, adding: "Most Americans aren’t so lucky. They’re going to be stuck in this dystopian country."
Topics: News, US News, Jimmy Kimmel
Gerrard Kaonga