R-Patz related to real draculula

TWILIGHT vampire hunk ROBERT PATTINSON has a surprising blood relative - the real Dracula.

The actor is a distant nephew of blood-thirsty 15th-century Transylvanian Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker.

And in an even stranger twist, the connecting link between Vlad and British Robert, nicknamed R-Patz, could be the ROYAL FAMILY.

Genealogists say Robert, 24 - vampire Edward Cullen in the hit movies - is distant cousins with princes William and Harry on their father Prince Charles's side.

The link is most likely through the Pickering family, who lived in Yorkshire in the early 1500s.

And Vlad Dracula - known as the Impaler for driving stakes through the bodies of enemies - is a far-off uncle of the royal pair.

Ancestry.com genealogist Anastasia Tyler said: "Royalty and vampires lurk in Pattinson's life, making his story just as supernatural as the one he plays on screen."

Amazingly, Twilight author STEPHENIE MEYER is also a distant cousin to the British princes, meaning she shares a link to Vlad.

Vlad Dracula was born in Transylvania and ruled Wallachia - now part of Romania - between 1456 and 1462.

He used to drive stakes into victims and leave them impaled in public as a warning to anyone found guilty of crimes.

It is estimated he killed up to 50,000 people.

Irish writer Bram Stoker based the name of his 1897 novel's blood-sucking vampire Dracula on Vlad.

The third film in the Twilight saga, Eclipse, hits UK cinemas on July 9.