Jack Nicholson’s estranged daughter opens up about growing up without him

Actor, who is a father to five children, has never publicly acknowledged Tessa Gourin as his daughter

Jack Nicholson’s estranged daughter Tessa Gourin has opened up about what it was like growing up without her father.

The 28-year-old actor is the daughter of Nicholson and Janine Gourin.

Janine was a young waitress when she became pregnant with Nicholson’s baby in 1994.

Nicholson, who is a father to five children, has never publicly acknowledged Tessa as his daughter, and he hasn’t been present in her life since she was a child.

After years of being called an “illegitimate” child, Tessa told The Daily Beast: “From a very young age, my mother told me not to tell anyone that I had this famous father.

“I knew he was powerful and Daddy Warbucks-level rich, so I made my life like Orphan Annie’s.”

Tessa shared that her mother wanted her to have a relationship with her father, “but he said he wasn’t interested”.

“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,” she said.

In an essay about Nepo-babies for Newsweek earlier this year, Tessa wrote about how she wished people could call her a nepo baby.

“Having grown up without my father, I’ve sat on the sidelines and watched in frustration as other celebrity children have seamlessly secured roles or been signed to huge agencies,” Gourin wrote in the piece.

“More recently, I have grown even more frustrated at what I think is a missed opportunity for these so-called ‘nepo babies’ to own their position and embrace it instead of complaining about it.”

Nicholson’s first child, Jennifer Nicholson, 59, was born in 1963 during his marriage to Sandra Knight.

Seven years later, he fathered son Caleb Goddard, 52, with Five Easy Pieces co-star Susan Anspach.

In 1981, Nicholson welcomed his third child, Honey Hollman, 41, with model Winnie Hollman, although Honey was raised by her mother in Denmark.

He shares his other children, daughter Lorraine, 32, and son Ray, 30, with actor Rebecca Broussard.