Ladd Is Not a Common Last Name — Perhaps Diane Ladd and Cheryl Ladd Were Related?

Following the death of actor Diane Ladd on Nov. 3, 2025, social media began digging into the actor's family. The multi-hyphenated talent was once married to fellow actor Bruce Dern. She later had two children, one of whom is Laura Dern, who most know from the first Jurassic Park film.

Diane was undoubtedly interested in acting due to the fact that her mother was also an actor. Perhaps it was in the water. Her hometown of Laurel, Miss., would someday be the subject of the HGTV show Home Town. We'd love to know if there are any members of Diane's family still living there. The last name of Ladd isn't very common. In fact, the only other Ladd we know of is actor Cheryl Ladd. Are the two related? Here's what we know.

If you're looking for any members of the Ladd family on Laurel, Miss., you probably won't find any. That's because Diane Ladd's birth name was actually Ladner. In a conversation with TODAY, Diane said she changed her name because Hollywood took her "ner." She explained that it happened after she won the British Academy Award, where 72 million people were told she was Alan Ladd's daughter. That wasn't true then, and it isn't true now.

Because Diane's last name isn't really Ladd, she is also not related to Cheryl Ladd of Charlie's Angels fame. Here's another plot twist: Ladner is also not the family name. Diane's ancestors came to the United States from France, where their last name was Lanier.

In December 2023, Laura Dern partnered with Ancestry.com because she wanted to give her mother the gift of history. Laura told TODAY it was an opportunity to "actually know where you’ve come from," adding that it was important to understand how you made it here by way of the mysteries of genetics.

It all started when Diane was diagnosed with a lung disease in 2018. She was given just three to six months to live but was told walking more would help her lungs. "That was four years ago," said Diane at the time. During these walks, Laura asked her mother to share stories about her past as well as their family's history. These conversations were eventually turned into a memoir titled Honey, Baby, Mine.

Through the partnership with Ancestry.com, Diane and Laura were able to fill in a few blanks. "In the book, we had questions that came up, that amazingly had natural answers if we dug further, which we got to do," explained Laura. "That's really exciting and within our own family ... it's impacted everybody." For example, Diane discovered her great-grandmother Prudence was a midwife and self-taught doctor whose first name was, coincidentally, Laura. This shocked Diane and Laura into silence.