Leonardo DiCaprio has contributed a whopping £7.6 million ($10 million) to support his grandmother’s homeland of Ukraine.
Because his maternal grandmother Helene Indenbirken was born in Odesa, the 47-year-old actor has a personal connection to the war-torn country. In 1917, she and her parents moved to Germany.
The International Visegrad Fund revealed the hefty contribution, according to Polish news reports.
DiCaprio was raised mostly by his mother, but he was also close to his grandmother, who was a strong supporter of his work from the start. He is alleged to have accompanied her to several of his film premieres and referred to her as ‘Oma.’
She fled the city a year before the Bolshevik revolt in Odesa, when authority was handed over to the Soviets, and went to Germany. At the age of 93, she died in 2008.
Several more performers have also made financial contributions to Ukraine.
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher announced last week that they would match contributions up to $3 million (£2.25 million) to assist provide humanitarian relief to Ukrainian refugees.
Some of the first celebs to offer funds were Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who announced the news on their own social media pages.
Reynolds took to Twitter to say: “In 48 hours, countless Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes to neighboring countries. They need protection. When you donate, we’ll match it up to $1,000,000, creating double the support.”
David Beckham, 46, and his wife Victoria, 47, also sent a huge amount of money, estimated to be £1 million, to help youngsters impacted by the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The Global Goodwill Ambassador announced the beginning of an emergency UNICEF appeal for help on his Instagram account.
He began the video by saying, “Like you I have watched the situation in Ukraine unfold with horror and disbelief. Mothers forced to flee with their children. Families torn apart. Children pulled from their beds to become refugees overnight.”
“The events that have unfolded in Ukraine are devastating,” Kunis, who was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, said in an Instagram video. “There is no place in this world for this kind of unjust attack on humanity”.
“I have always considered myself an American, a proud American. I love everything this country has done for myself and my family. But today, I have never been more proud to be a Ukrainian.”
Gigi Hadid has also said that she would contribute her profits from the autumn 2022 fashion shows “to aid those suffering from the war in Ukraine, as well as continuing to support those experiencing the same in Palestine.”
She said, “Our eyes and hearts must be open to all human injustice. May we all see each other as brothers and sisters, beyond politics, beyond race, beyond religion. At the end of the day, innocent lives pay for war—not leaders.”
DiCaprio has long been interested in programs aimed at averting global warming.
He and his family formed the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, when he was 25 years old, to encourage “sustainable development around the world”
