For most of his life, believed the woman who raised him was his mother but this was not the case.
It was a shocking secret that remained hidden for nearly four decades. The truth came to light just as his star was rising in , leaving the actor to grapple with a story that seemed straight out of one of his films.
Born in 1937 in Neptune, New Jersey, Jack’s mother June was just 18 when she became pregnant with him. Her boyfriend, Don, was married to another woman at the time.
In a bid to avoid scandal, June’s mother, Ethel May, stepped in to raise Jack as her own, while June was presented as his much older sister.
“Nobody ever bothered to explain this to young Jack,” wrote Patrick McGilligan in Jack’s Life, a biography of the actor. June eventually moved to Miami to pursue her dream of becoming a showgirl, leaving four-year-old Jack behind.
How Jack Nicholson discovered his sister was actually his mother (Image: Getty)
When Jack turned 17, he headed to Los Angeles to live with his “sister” June, who had relocated to pursue a career in showbiz. “Since my only relative in the world was June, who was out here, I came out to look around,” Nicholson told Rolling Stone in 1986.
Jack’s journey began with a job as an office boy in the animated cartoon department at MGM Studios. His charm soon got him noticed, and he was encouraged to take acting classes—a decision that would change his life.
It wasn’t until 1974, as Chinatown was about to hit theatres, that Nicholson’s world turned upside down. During an interview for Time magazine, researchers unearthed startling revelations: his “mother,” Ethel May, was actually his grandmother, and his “sister,” June, was his biological mother.
To make matters even more complicated, they claimed his father was still alive and living in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Jack, shaken by the news, called his brother-in-law, Shorty. “This is the most f***ed thing I’ve ever heard,” he reportedly said, according to McGilligan. Shorty initially denied the claims but eventually confirmed their accuracy.
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Jack learned about his family secret when his star was rising (Image: Getty)
By the time Nicholson discovered the truth, both Ethel May and June had passed away, leaving him unable to confront them. Reflecting on the revelation, Nicholson admitted it was “dramatic” but insisted it wasn’t “traumatizing.”
“I was very impressed by their ability to keep the secret, if nothing else,” he said to Rolling Stone. “It’s done great things for me.”
The revelation’s timing added an eerie layer to the star’s work. In Chinatown, his character uncovers a dark family secret involving his co-star Faye Dunaway’s character—a storyline that mirrored the real-life bombshell he had just learned.
He has since joked about the discovery, referring to June as his “sister-mother” in interviews, but he rarely discusses the matter publicly.