Tessa Gourin, Jack Nicholson’s Estranged Daughter, Claims He ‘Doesn’t Want’ Her In His Life

Jack Nicholson’s daughter Tessa Gourin is speaking out about her estranged relationship with her famous father.

Since the 28-year-old actress was young, her mother, actress Jennine Gourin, told her “not to tell anyone that I have this famous dad,” Gourin recently told The Daily Beast. 

“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 publication, referring to the 1932 film “Little Orphan Annie”.

Gourin claimed that, as a child, Nicholson, who has never publicly acknowledged her as his daughter, “wasn’t interested” in having a relationship with her. While she refused to go into detail about her childhood, she did mention that her father, now 85, paid for her early education.

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“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,” Gourin explained. “I don’t know this person very well, we’ll just say that.”

The New York-based actress added that she wanted to act her whole life, noting that, growing up, she performed at sleepovers and often asked others to film her.

“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 continued.

Gourin’s interview comes after she wrote a piece for Newsweek in January, in which she explained that she “sat on the sidelines and watched in frustration as other celebrity children have seamlessly secured roles or been signed to huge agencies.”

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While chatting with The Daily Beast, she commented further on the Hollywood “nepo baby” discussion, including how other actresses have been denying career advancements from nepotism.

“It’s such a double-sided thing, because I can also understand the frustration of getting in the door, and then once you’re there it’s like, ‘Okay, now show us what you can do’,” Gourin explained. “But as an actor, that’s the most exciting thing to me. It’s a driving force to want to prove yourself. This guilty thing over ultimately having a gift is something you should just work out yourself, and put into your work.”

Despite her love for acting, Gourin admitted that she eventually feared her connection to Nicholson would blacklist her.

“I was afraid people would think I was tacky or that I was riding off his coattails,” she told the news website. “But this person doesn’t want me in his life, so how would you use that to your benefit?”

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Regardless of Gourin’s estranged relationship with her father, she still respects him as an actor.

“I really want this to come across: If I were to discredit anything about his acting, then that wouldn’t make me an artist, because making art and being the world’s greatest dad are not the same thing,” she said.

Nicholson is also a dad to five other children. The actor shares Jennifer Nicholson, 59, with ex-wife Sandra Knight; Caleb Goddard, 52, with “Five Easy Pieces” co-star Susan Anspach; Honey Hollman, 41, with model Winnie Hollman; and daughter Lorraine, 32, and son Ray, 30, with actress Rebecca Broussard.

In 2010, Nicholson spoke about fatherhood with AARP, telling the magazine that he wanted to be “inspirational, or some kind of good influence on them without overburdening them.”