Most people know the DeLorean name from a stainless-steel sports car with gull-wing doors. Fewer know the family behind it — including Kathryn DeLorean, who has spent years making sure that story is told on the family’s own terms.
She isn’t a celebrity in the traditional sense. She doesn’t have a TV show or a film career. But as the daughter of one of America’s most talked-about automotive figures, Kathryn has carved out a public role as a voice for the DeLorean family’s legacy — and she takes that role seriously.
This article covers who Kathryn DeLorean is, her family background and siblings, the ethnic and genealogical roots of the DeLorean name, and her ongoing work to protect and extend the family’s connection to the brand her father built.
Who Is Kathryn DeLorean?
Her full name is Kathryn Ann DeLorean. She goes publicly by Kat DeLorean, and her Instagram identifies her as Kat DeLorean Seymour, which appears to reflect a married name. She was born on November 15, 1977.
Kathryn is the daughter of John DeLorean, the automotive executive and engineer who founded DeLorean Motor Company, and Cristina Ferrare, a model and television personality who became well known in her own right during the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s worth noting a small point of confusion for genealogy searchers. Some family history databases list a different “Kathryn DeLorean” — specifically a Kathryn DeLorean (Pribak), born in 1904 in Gătaia, Romania. That is an ancestor, not the modern Kathryn Ann DeLorean. The two are separate people from different generations, and it’s easy to mix them up in search results.
Her Family — Siblings, Step-Relations, and the DeLorean Household
Kathryn’s only full sibling is her brother Zachary DeLorean, also known as Zach. She is the older of the two. John DeLorean and Cristina Ferrare were married from 1973 to 1985, and both Kathryn and Zach were born during that marriage.
After the marriage ended, Cristina later married television executive Tony Thomopoulos. That union brought two more children into Kathryn’s extended family: Arianna Thomopoulos and Alex Thomopoulos, who are her half-siblings on her mother’s side. Kathryn also became a stepdaughter to Thomopoulos through her mother’s remarriage.
This blended family background helps explain something important. When Kathryn and Zach speak publicly about the DeLorean legacy, they are specifically identifying with their father’s side of the family. The DeLorean name is central to how they present themselves — it’s not just a surname, it’s part of their identity.
The DeLorean Family Name — Where It Comes From
The DeLorean name sounds Italian to many people. It isn’t — at least not in origin. According to Kathryn herself, the family’s roots are in Romania and Hungary.
In interviews connected to the DeLorean Legacy Project, she has explained that her grandfather on John’s side was Romanian, and her grandmother came from a part of Hungary that was later incorporated into Romania. This Eastern European heritage is not something that comes up often in popular coverage of the DeLorean story, but it’s part of the family’s actual background.
There’s also an interesting detail about the name itself. The original family spelling was “Delorean” — no capital L, no stylized spacing. According to Kathryn, her father John changed the spelling to “DeLorean” to give it a more distinctive, exotic feel. This kind of deliberate name adjustment isn’t unusual for public figures. Many entertainers and entrepreneurs have altered name spellings over the years for branding purposes. For John, it became part of how he built his personal identity alongside his professional reputation.
The ancestral connection to Romania is also visible in genealogy records. The Geni.com database includes an entry for Kathryn DeLorean (Pribak), born in 1904 in Gătaia, a town in western Romania. That entry reflects the earlier generation of the DeLorean family tree and supports what Kathryn has said about her family’s Eastern European origins — even if that particular entry refers to an ancestor rather than to her.
A Three-Generation Auto Family
The DeLorean family’s connection to the auto industry didn’t start with John. According to Kathryn, her grandfather — John’s father — worked at Packard and later at Ford, and was among the early union leaders in American manufacturing. That background gave John an early window into the car world and helped shape his path into automotive engineering.
John went on to build a significant career at General Motors, where he became one of the youngest division heads in the company’s history and was credited with developing the Pontiac GTO, one of the cars widely considered a defining model of the American muscle car era. He later left GM to start his own company — DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) — and created the iconic DMC-12, the stainless-steel sports car with gull-wing doors that would later become famous worldwide after appearing in Back to the Future.
Now Kathryn represents a third generation with a stake in the DeLorean automotive story. She hasn’t built cars herself, but she has been vocal about wanting to see a legitimate family-connected DeLorean project move forward.
Protecting the Legacy — Kat’s Public Advocacy
Kathryn is open about where she stands on the DeLorean name and brand. Her Instagram bio reads simply: “I am Kat DeLorean, my daddy is John DeLorean, we are a family, I love my dad.” It’s a personal statement, but it also plants a flag.
She and her brother Zach have publicly described themselves as “the rightful heirs to the DeLorean name and IP.” That’s a strong claim — and it’s worth being clear that it reflects their stated position, not a court ruling. The question of who legally owns the DeLorean trademarks and intellectual property is a separate and complicated matter involving corporate entities that have operated under the DeLorean name since the original company closed in the 1980s.
What Kathryn is clearly doing is pushing back against the idea that the DeLorean brand belongs entirely to corporate interests that have no direct family connection. On Facebook, she has shared posts urging people to support the DeLorean family in reclaiming their legacy and has amplified commentary questioning the current ownership of the DeLorean Motor Company name.
This kind of tension between a founder’s family and later corporate owners isn’t unique to the DeLorean story. It echoes situations seen with certain fashion houses and technology companies, where the founding family and the current corporate brand have ended up pulling in different directions. Whether or not Kathryn and Zach succeed in their mission, their perspective adds an important layer to how the DeLorean story is understood.
New Projects and the DeLorean Legacy Initiative
Kathryn’s advocacy isn’t just about protecting the past. She has also spoken about moving forward. A feature by Hagerty Media described her as someone working to do what her father never fully managed — restart a genuine family-connected DeLorean car company. The goal appears to be building something new that honors John’s original vision while addressing the problems that plagued the original DMC.
The DeLorean Legacy Project has been a platform for this work. Through interviews and talks connected to the project, Kathryn has discussed her family’s history, her father’s career, and what she believes the DeLorean name should represent going forward. It’s part personal mission, part public advocacy.
She also appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 connected to the documentary-drama Framing John DeLorean, which examined her father’s story through both documentary interviews and dramatized scenes. For Kathryn, participating in events like that is part of making sure the family’s perspective is part of the public conversation — not just the corporate narrative or the sensationalized version of events.
For readers who want to follow stories about family legacies, business history, and the people behind famous names, BusinessBase covers a wide range of profiles in that space.
Why People Look Up Kathryn DeLorean
There are a few different kinds of people who search for Kathryn’s name. Some are fans of the DeLorean car or Back to the Future who get curious about John DeLorean’s family. Others are following news about new DeLorean-related projects. And a surprising number are genealogy enthusiasts tracing the DeLorean family tree through databases like Geni or MyHeritage.
All of those paths lead to roughly the same place: a woman who grew up in the shadow of a famous and complicated family name, and who has chosen to step into that story rather than away from it.
Kathryn DeLorean isn’t trying to be a celebrity. She’s trying to make sure that when people tell the DeLorean story, they tell it fully — including the family that lived it.
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