America's pop princess Britney Spears, who is making a comeback after hitting the depths last year, has a trace of Maltese blood running through her veins.

The Times of London has traced the 26-year-old singer's ancestry and it emerged that her great-great-grandfather, Edward Richard Portelli, was born in Malta circa 1873.

Featuring an article titled Skeleton In Britney Spears's Family Closet, the newspaper reported that her great-grandparents, George Anthony Portell (a corruption of Portelli) and Lillian Esther Lewis, appear to have been living in sin before they were married - a major scandal back in the 1920s.

Edward Richard Portelli was the father of George Anthony Portell.