Bill and Hillary Clinton have been the subject of lots of rumors over the years, but one particularly persistent one is also pretty odd: That Chelsea Clinton isn't Bill's daughter. Here's why it won't seem to go away.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Bill and Hillary Clinton have been the subject of lots of rumors over the years,
00:04but one particularly persistent one is also pretty odd — that Chelsea Clinton
00:08isn't Bill's daughter. Here's why it won't seem to go away.
00:11During Bill's time in the White House, from 1993 to 2001, Chelsea largely stayed out of
00:16the spotlight. Bill and Hillary's only child attended high school in the early years,
00:20then started at Stanford University in 1997. Chelsea entered the public eye more fully
00:25in the following years. She became an NBC correspondent in 2011, has worked prominently
00:30for the Clinton Foundation, and campaigned for her mom during her runs for the presidency
00:34in 2008 and 2016.
00:35Even if we're voting against something, we are also voting for something.
00:39Right? So for me, I'm, yes, I'm voting against Donald Trump,
00:42I'm also so proudly voting for my mom."
00:44The notion that she wasn't Bill's biological daughter has dogged Chelsea since the 1990s,
00:48but it got a shot in the arm between Hillary's presidential campaigns.
00:52In 2014, Larry Nichols, a former aide of Bill's when he was governor of Arkansas,
00:56came forward and alleged that the former president once admitted that he was sterile
01:00due to a childhood case of measles. He claimed that Chelsea's biological father
01:04was former Little Rock mayor and U.S. Associate Attorney General Webster Hubble,
01:08with whom Hillary once worked. It's worth noting that Nichols had an axe to grind.
01:12He filed a lawsuit against Bill over his 1988 firing for phone calls to the Contras in Nicaragua,
01:18which Nichols eventually dropped. Once Bill started his run for president in 1992,
01:22Nichols became a frequent guest on conservative talk radio,
01:25claiming Bill had five extramarital affairs while governor. It even reached the point
01:29where Nichols proclaimed he had committed murders on the Clintons' behalf, a statement
01:33he later rescinded. He remained a conservative political commentator until his death in 2020.
01:38Even so, some believe Nichols was telling the truth about Chelsea's parentage.
01:42People on X, formerly Twitter, have put photos of Chelsea next to Hubble and
01:46his daughters, comparing their features. Yet, despite all the whispers, the parties involved
01:50haven't spoken out on the topic. In 2015, Chelsea was at a signing to promote her first book,
01:55It's Your World, Get Informed, Get Inspired, and Get Going, which was aimed at pre-teen readers.
02:00CBS News reported that an attendee asked her,
02:02"'Has your mother ever told you that you're the daughter of Webb Hubble and not Bill Clinton?'
02:06Chelsea responded, "'I'm so proud to be my parents' daughter.'"
02:10She then quickly changed the subject. This appears to be the only time she has publicly
02:14addressed — or sidestepped — the rumor, at least directly.
02:17"'Dad, as all of you now know, liked Police Academy.
02:23My mom and I loved Pride and Prejudice.'"
02:25We're kidding with that, of course, but conspiracy theories about the Clintons have been a cottage
02:29industry for years, so it's no real surprise that Chelsea isn't the only child rumored to
02:34have been born outside of Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage. In the late 90s, Danny
02:38Williams claimed to be Bill Clinton's son. He and his family were from Little Rock, Arkansas,
02:42and Danny alleged he was the product of a tryst between Bill and his mother,
02:45Bobbi Williams, a former sex worker. A DNA test was conducted to confirm Danny's paternity.
02:50The results excluded Bill as a possibility, putting the issue to rest — at least temporarily.
02:55The topic of Danny's parentage resurfaced in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was running for president.
03:01Several media outlets ran with the story, with some even calling the first DNA test,
03:05commissioned by the tabloid star, into question. The same year, Danny announced he would file a
03:10paternity suit and even reached out to Monica Lewinsky for access to Bill's DNA, though she
03:14never responded. As of 2024, Danny continues to express his belief that Bill Clinton is his
03:20biological father, with both his Instagram and ex-bios reading,
03:23"'I'm the son of the 42nd president.'"
03:25"'I am the son of former President Bill Clinton. All I wanna do is shake my father's hand.'"