Hollywood always has strange stories, but Jack Nicholson's is one of the most surprising. The legendary actor lived for almost four decades believing that his biological mother, June, was his sister, while his grandmother, Ethel May, was the mother who raised him.
In 1936, June, just 18 years old, became pregnant by her then-boyfriend, Don, who was married. To avoid the embarrassment of a child born out of wedlock, Ethel May took on the role of mother, raising Jack as her own son and introducing June as his sister.
Jack never understood the truth during his childhood. Later, when he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his Hollywood dream, he joined his "sister" June in pursuing a career in films.
The biggest surprise came in 1974, when Time magazine alerted him that the whole truth was coming out: his father was alive, and what he had thought about his mother and sister was not true. Rather than being completely traumatized, Nicholson described the revelation as “dramatic but not traumatizing,” and called the family’s ability to keep the secret something impressive.
He later joked that June was his "sister-mother," but the story remains one of Hollywood's strangest secrets, revealing that behind Nicholson's iconic smile lies an unusual family history.
