Gemma Collins believes she's related to notorious serial killer - and will use psychic powers to prove it

The Only Way is Essex star said that after learning about her family on the genealogy series, which follows well-known people trace their family tree, she made a discovery. The 43-year-old said she was told she has a connection to Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper was a murderer who committed multiple killings in the late 19th century – and he was never identified, even more than 100 years later. During the show, Collins learned that her family lived in an area of London where the murderer was known to have been active.

She told The Metro: “I just think that . . . it’s kind of just crazy, isn’t it? Like you don’t know he could actually . . . no one knew who Jack the Ripper was, did they? So he could have been my family. Do you see? I mean, it’s certainly not boring.” She added: “The link to Jack the Ripper is something else, for sure.”

The star also told the Daily Star: “My great great grandfather worked in a workhouse and died there. I think that’s the reason they can’t find Jack The Ripper . . . because it was him. The writing is on the wall. It could only happen to me. It would be my luck that he would be one of my relatives.”

But, then she went on to say that the news made her feel “ecstatic” She continued: “I always knew there was more to me and my family. I just think it’s a hilarious story. Obviously the murders were terrible and I get that. But how could it be that my family were on the same street as Jack The Ripper’s victims? You just couldn’t make it up. You’ve got The GC and Jack The Ripper. I’m an unusual character and that’s definitely come from somewhere.”

Collins, who has recently postponed her wedding to fiance Rami Hawash due to two family tragedies, is determined to find out for sure that she is related to the unknown killer, who terrorised Londoners in the 1880s. She’s going to use the psychic powers she believes she has to speak to his ghost and ask him some questions.

She said: “I’m going to have a seance and speak to Jack The Ripper. I need to know what went on.”

During her time filming for the show, Collins also made some discoveries about her mum’s upbringing and even found she had new relatives. Her mum, Joan Collins, was fostered as a baby and had little information about where she came from. On the family history show, viewers will see Collins and her mum find out much more.

Collins told The Metro: “My mum had actually, in the end . . . she had a nice family, didn’t she?” She added that it was the “right decision for her mum” that she was fostered as a newborn, as her birth mother was suffering with her mental health. She added: “[I’m] not saying that people with mental health [issues] can’t have children. It really was the right thing that my mum was fostered, a million per cent, because mental health was measured differently back then.”

She went on to say that her mum has “definitely got closure on it for sure”, after years of “growing up and not feeling like she belonged or was wanted”. “She’s got that peace of mind,” she said.

The episode will air on Thursday September 26 at 9pm on BBC One.