When you’re Emma Roberts—and your aunt is Julia Roberts—it’s not altogether impossible to get a surprise eighth birthday call from none other than Britney Spears, reaching the apex of pop superstardom in 1999.
Speaking with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos on yesterday’s Live with Mark and Kelly—taped on April Fool’s Day—Roberts said she is “always nervous” about being pranked, even at that tender age. “I’m on guard year-round, especially with family and friends, but I’ve gotten it wrong before,” Roberts said, per People. “Very wrong.”
Roberts’ aunt Julia and mother Kelly Cunningham surprised young Emma with a call from Spears, Roberts recalled: “It was my birthday and I think I was eight or nine—and this was back in the day of landlines,” she said. “My mom and my aunt handed me the landline and said, ‘Someone’s on the phone for you.’ And I was like, ‘Who?’”
The American Horror Story: Delicate star remembered Spears saying “Happy birthday, Emma. It’s Britney Spears.” Thinking it was a prank, “I looked at them and hung up and was like, ‘Mm-hmmm, nice,’” Roberts said. “And they were like, ‘No, that was her.’”
She added “I was—still am—the biggest Britney Spears fan. And I literally started crumbling and I was like, ‘Can we get her back on the phone?’ They got her back on the phone.” Ripa then quipped, “Star 69 or whatever,” referencing a now-dated way to call back the number that just called you.
“I was like click right [away],” Roberts added, mimicking hanging up the phone. “I’m so sorry, Britney.” After Consuelos asked what the two ultimately talked about, Roberts said that she was too shocked to have a conversation with Spears, telling the host “I was so mortified and nervous and I was eight, so I just was like, ‘Thank you so much,’” she said. “I’m shaking thinking about it.”
Roberts admitted she “probably” cried after the experience but “in that moment, I thought I got them. I was like, ‘Nice try, everybody. Good prank.’”
Roberts also told Ripa and Consuelos that long before she and Kim Kardashian’s paths crossed on AHS, she met Kardashian while shopping at Dash, the since-shuttered boutique owned by Kardashian and sisters Kourtney and Khloé. “You know, it’s so funny,” Roberts said, per People. “Kim and I both grew up in Calabasas, California, and when I was a teenager, I used to shop at her and [her] sisters’ store, Dash. They were all working there at the time, before the show [Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which premiered in 2007] and I would shop there and chat with them. So when we were on the show [AHS], I’m like, ‘Wow. From Calabasas to here.’”
Dash opened in 2006, the year before KUWTK premiered. After expanding the boutique’s reach from Calabasas to Miami, New York City, and a pop-up in Southampton, Dash closed for good in 2018.
Roberts said in January that Kardashian is “amazing, she’s a pro,” Roberts said. “She’s one of the most prepared people I’ve ever worked with, and she’s just chill. I love her so much.”
