Jack Nicholson’s legacy is not limited to his work as an actor. He’s also a father of six, with five different moms.
Nicholson, 86, is dad of Jennifer, 60, Caleb, 53, Honey, 43, Lorraine, 33, Ray, 32, and Tessa, 29. Though the three-time Oscar winner isn’t close to all of his kids, he enjoys a relationship with Jennifer, from his marriage to Sandra Knight, and Lorraine and Ray, whom he shares with ex-girlfriend Rebecca Broussard.
In a 2008 interview with AARP The Magazine, Nicholson said that he’s always “gotten along” with Lorraine and Ray.
“I always read to them, from childhood on; I think that’s a father’s responsibility. I took them to things I knew they might not love — opera, ballet,” Nicholson revealed. “They like going to the ball games with me. And they are very comfortable around show business; they are good set rats.”
"They walked in on my death scene in ‘The Departed,’” he added. “I said, ‘If I can get these two kids really worried, I’m doin’ my job!”
Read on to learn more about Nicholson’s six children:
Jennifer Nicholson
Nicholson welcomed his first child in 1963, with then-wife Sandra Knight. The couple divorced in 1968 after six years of marriage. Nicholson never remarried.
“I must have scared the hell out of him!” Knight joked during a Q&A with photographer Alan Mercer. “Just kidding.”
Knight went on to explain, “When there is real love, it doesn’t matter if you live together or not, you still maintain a love and respect for those who have served different purposes in your life. We are now very good friends.”
After their split, Knight moved to Hawaii with Jennifer. Jennifer would go on to graduate from college with a degree in art history, and has worked as an interior decorator, fashion designer, actor, and boutique owner.
“I like being Jack Nicholson’s daughter and I’m proud of him, but people don’t understand the pressures that come along with that,” Jennifer told the Los Angeles Times in 2003.
While chatting with the newspaper, Jennifer recalled being a kid and attending parties at the Playboy Mansion with her famous father
“My mother used to say that she prayed a lot, and I guess it worked because nothing bad ever happened,” she said.
Jennifer and ex-husband Mark Norfleet share two sons: Duke, 25, and Sean, 28.
Duke is following in his grandfather’s footsteps and has appeared in films including, Jordan Peele’s 2019 horror film “Us.” Peele told the Hollywood Reporter he wasn’t aware of the Jack Nicholson connection when he cast Duke in the movie.
Caleb Goddard
In 1970, Susan Anspach welcomed a son named Caleb, and said his father was her “Five Easy Pieces” co-star Nicholson.
Anspach would go on to marry actor Mark Goddard while she was pregnant, and Mark adopted Caleb shortly after his birth.
After Nicholson was profiled in Vanity Fair in 1994, Anspach penned a letter to the editor, flagging a “mistake.”
“Jack’s son Raymond is his younger son and youngest child. Our son, Caleb, is Jack’s older son and second-oldest child, second to his sister, Jennifer,” she wrote. “I have asked Jack about this oversight, and his response to me is that he doesn’t really want to talk about his children in interviews. He feels that it’s not his responsibility if the reporter neglects to mention one or two of his children.”
Anspach noted that Nicholson and Caleb “have a very warm relationship.”
Anspach passed away in 2018, while Mark Goddard died in 2023.
According to a 2018 story in U.K. paper The Times, Caleb was a TV news producer and worked for the US State Department.
Honey Hollman
Nicholson welcomed his third child with model Winnie Hollman in 1981. Honey, who was raised by her mother in Denmark, owns Cult Zero, an organic, zero-waste grocery store in Ireland. She and her husband, Peter Duffy, share three youngchildren.
Lorraine Nicholson
Nicholson and then-girlfriend Rebecca Broussard, an actor and model, welcomed Lorraine in 1990.
“I believe my parents had a full-blown party in the (delivery) room at Cedars-Sinai because adults are constantly coming up to me saying, ‘I was there the day you were born,’” Lorraine told Vanity Fair in 2023.
Lorraine, like her half-sister Jennifer, also hung out at the Playboy Mansion with Nicholson as a kid.
“You could order any food you wanted,” Lorraine told Vanity Fair. “I would order pounds of mashed potatoes and peas.”
Lorraine, a filmmaker, graduated from Brown University in 2012 with a degree in literary arts.
In 2010, she told People that ever since she was a baby, her dad has called her “Perf, short for perfect.”
Ray Nicholson
Nicholson and Broussard are also parents of actor son Ray.
Ray, who recently made a red carpet appearance with his model girlfriend Sara Sampaio, is father's spitting image.
The 32-year-old has appeared in films including 2022’s “Something from Tiffany’s,” and 2018’s “The Outsider.”
In a 2008 interview with AARP The Magazine, Nicholson described Ray as determined, and shared a story about how he was the youngest kid at his school to make the varsity football team.
“Ray might not tell you exactly what he’s up to, but once he’s got his mind set on something, he’s gonna stick to it and take care of business, no matter what me or nobody else says,” Nicholson said.
Tessa Gourin
Tessa was raised in New York City by her mother, Jennine Gourin.
In 2023, Tessa wrote an article for Newsweek titled, “I’m Jack Nicholson’s Daughter — I Wish People Could Call me a Nepo Baby.”
“It’s probably difficult for some to fathom exactly how I could have a legendary actor for a father, but not count myself among the enviably connected. The truth is, in all of my 28 years of life, we have never had a relationship,” Tessa shared.
In the story, Tessa, a ceramicist and aspiring actor, said that Nicholson was “never a deadbeat dad,” and that he paid for her to attend “many prestigious private schools.”
Rachel Paula Abrahamson is a lifestyle reporter who writes for the parenting, health and shop verticals. Her bylines have appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and elsewhere. Rachel lives in the Boston area with her husband and their two daughters. Follow her on Instagram.