Jack Nicholson‘s estranged daughter Tessa Gourin alleges the actor is not “interested” in having a relationship with her.
Speaking to Daily Beast, the 28-year-old claims that her mom — real estate agent Jennine Gourin — told her from a young age to never “tell anyone” she had a “famous dad.”
“I knew he was powerful and Daddy Warbucks-level rich, so I kind of equated my life to being like Orphan Annie’s,” she told the outlet, which describes Tessa as a “spitting image” of the Hollywood icon.
“When you’re a child, you don’t have a choice where you’re going, so if your mom is pushing you on someone who’s technically your father and he agrees to see you for anywhere between one hour and a couple of days, that’s where you’re going to go. I don’t know this person very well, we’ll just say that,” Tessa shared.
Tessa, a New York-based aspiring actress, grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Her childhood was reportedly “hardly luxurious,” but The Shining actor did fund her early education in private schools.
Tessa has always wanted to be an actress, and even asked to be filmed all the time when she was just a child.
“My mom wouldn’t let me act when I was younger, and I can respect that, but I’m like, ‘F–k, I would have killed it,'” she said.
In her mid-twenties, however, Tessa put her acting career on pause because she feared people would find out who her father was and blacklist her from the industry.
“I was afraid people would think I was tacky or that I was riding off his coattails. But this person doesn’t want me in his life, so how would you use that to your benefit?” she said.
According to Daily Beast, Nicholson has “never publicly acknowledged [Tessa] Gourin as his daughter.”
Nicholson has five other children: Ray, Lorraine, Jennifer, Caleb and Honey. He was married to ex-wife, Sandra Knight, from 1962 to 1968.