Woody Harrelson has doubled down on his theory that Matthew McConaughey is actually his brother in real life.
In a new interview, Harrelson, 61, claims that when McConaughey, 53, was born in 1969, McConaughey’s father refused to go to the hospital with the actor’s mother, telling her: “That ain’t my son.”
The revelation, which came in an article published by Esquire, follows an interview McConaughey gave last month, in which he said: “My kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. And you see pictures of us and my family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me. His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him.”
He continued: “In Greece a few years ago, we’re sitting around talking about how close we are and our families. And my mom is there, and she says, ‘Woody, I knew your dad.’ Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew’. It was a loaded K-N-E-W.”
McConaughey said his mother’s remark moved him to investigate his family history, and whether she might have had a fling with Harrelson’s father in which McConaughey was conceived.
“We went on to unpack what this ‘knew’ meant,” he said, “and did some math and found out that [Harrelson’s] dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce.
“Then there’s possible receipts and places out in West Texas where there might have been a gathering, or a meeting, or a ‘knew’ moment.”
McConaughey was estranged from his mother, Mary Kathlene McCabe, for several years. The man he has believed is his father his whole life, James, died in 1992.
Harrelson’s father, a hitman called Charles, died in prison in 2007. His mother is Diane Lou Oswald.
Harrelson has said he wants to take a DNA test to find out if the two are actually related.
He told Stephen Colbert: “We want to go and test, but for him, it’s a much more big deal. I mean he feels like he is losing a father. But I’m like, no, you’re gaining a different father and a brother.”
The two stars have been close friends for many years, and have starred together in Edtv, Surfer Dude, Welcome to Hollywood and True Detective.
They are set to co-star in an Apple TV+ scripted comedy series based on their friendship called Brother From Another Mother.
