An actress claiming to be one of Jack Nicholson’s children is speaking out about her complicated relationship with the legendary actor and how it’s affected her life.
Tessa Gourin, 28, was born in 1994 following a rumored relationship between the Academy Award-winning actor and a waitress named Jennine Gourin. Though Nicholson has never publicly declared he’s Gourin’s father, Gourin claimed that he has provided financial support to her over the years, including private school tuition in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
However, the “Terms of Endearment” star paid no attention to her during her childhood, Gourin says. “From a very young age, my mother told me not to tell anyone that I have this famous dad,” Gourin told The Daily Beast in a recent interview.
“I knew he was powerful and Daddy Warbucks-level rich, so I kind of equated my life to being like Orphan Annie’s,” she added. “I was raised by a single mother in a really intense, nuanced situation. I was dealt a really sh***y random card, but I’m not gonna let that destroy me. In fact, I’m gonna use it to fuel me.”
Gourin says she’s not close with Nicholson. “My mom wanted me to have a relationship with him, but he said he wasn’t interested,” she claimed during the interview, going on to say, “I don’t think anyone’s ever given me a concrete answer,” as to why the actor never attempted to have a relationship with her.
The aspiring actress said she has theories, though. “I formed my own opinion,” she told the publication. “He’s a complicated person, and I think my mom fights her own demons, and with the combination of the two, I was simply collateral damage.”
Gourin said she shares some traits with Nicholson, noting how she’s “f***ing crazy.”
“I’m not the poster child for sanity, and I do think that’s a little similar to my dad, from what I’ve read,” she said.
Besides Gourin, it’s believed that Nicholson fathered at least five other children with four different women over the years. The actor shares daughter Jennifer Nicholson, 59, with ex-wife Sandra Knight. Actress Susan Anspach claims that he’s also the father of her son Caleb Goddard, 53. Nicholson did not publicly acknowledge paternity of Caleb, but Caleb claims he did privately.
Nicholson and ex-girlfriend Rebecca Broussard are parents to Lorraine Nicholson, 32, and Ray Nicholson, 30. Unlike with Gourin, the actor has been photographed with both Lorraine and Ray in public.
The “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” actor also allegedly shares daughter Honey Hollman, 41, with Danish model Winnie Hollman, but also doesn’t acknowledge her publicly.
