The iconic actor Jack Nicholson found out that his sister was actually his biological mom.
Nicholson found out when he was 37 years old. He was raised by John and Ethel May Nicholson. He had two sisters, Lorraine and June Frances Nicholson.
In 1974, which was over a decade after his sister June died of cancer, a TIME magazine reporter reached out to the actor to verify some facts for a cover story. This is when Nicholson found out that June was his biological mother, and Ethel was actually his maternal grandmother.
Unfortunately, when he found out, both June and Ethel had already passed away. But he did reach out to his “sister” Lorraine, who would actually be his aunt.
Nicholson first called who he thought was his brother-in-law, Lorraine’s husband Shorty. Shorty had no idea what Nicholson was talking about, so he asked his wife. Shorty hung up and called back with his wife Lorraine on the phone who had been “crying all night.”
In an interview about the situation with Rolling Stone, Nicholson said “both grandmother and mother were deceased before this particular group of facts came to my attention. I was very impressed by their ability to keep the secret if nothing else. It’s done great things for me.”
Nicholson also said he was grateful he did not find out about the situation when he was younger because he wasn’t sure how he would’ve reacted. According to Biography, June was 17 when she gave birth to Jack. She wasn’t married and was not sure who the biological father was, so her parents decided to raise their grandson as their own.