The Ups & Downs Of Jack Nicholson's Turbulent Relationship With Anjelica Huston

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston were one of Hollywood's most glamorous and unconventional couples. Nicholson had a tragic life  before achieving stardom, a versatile leading man with a reputation to match. Huston was the daughter of Hollywood icon John Huston, beginning her career as a model before becoming an acclaimed actress to rival Nicholson. 

They met in the '70s, with a significant age difference between them, kicking off a 17-year relationship filled with ups and downs before finally calling it quits. And even then, they continued to share a bond and respect for one another that has endured as they went their separate ways.

After their breakup, precipitated in part by Nicholson fathering children with Rebecca Broussard, the "Batman" star was linked to a series of starlets before his dating life seemed to quiet entirely. As he told Closer in 2015, "I would love that one last romance. But I'm not very realistic about it happening. What I can't deny is my yearning." Meanwhile, Huston married sculptor Robert Graham and stayed with him until his death in 2008. As of 2013, Huston said during an interview with Larry King that she was single and was not looking for another partner.

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston first met when her acting career was just about to take off and his was nearing its peak. Huston was also coming out of a controlling relationship with her first love, fashion photographer Bob Richardson. Discussing that first encounter at the party, Huston told Stuff, "I sort of arrived and didn't leave. I thought, this is the kind of man you could fall for." 

She also told People in a 1985 interview, when she and Nicholson had been involved for about 12 years at the time, that she had fallen for his eyes. "They were kind, and his whole face lit up when he smiled," she said at the time.

Nicholson was similarly smitten with Huston. He told People, "I saw cla-a-a-ss" when recalling their first meeting. The actor also described her as having "this great natural sophistication, but she could live in Alaska with a guy who hunts wolves and do just fine."

Despite their attraction to each other, Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston's relationship was the definition of turbulent, with Nicholson often cheating. In her 2014 memoir, "Watch Me," Huston wrote, (per Vanity Fair), that she "didn't recognize Jack as a world-class philanderer at the time." She described him as "discreet" in his affairs, though she occasionally found items from other women in the house and saw a girl on the street wearing her jacket. 

Explaining her decision to continue the relationship despite the infidelity, Huston told CNN, "People also say to me, 'Well, why did you hang on?' Oh, why not, you know. I was in love, and I think maybe in a few cases I took those infidelities more seriously than he did."

Nicholson himself admits he wasn't always interested in being a one-woman kind of guy. As he told Vanity Fair, he has done "intermittent monogamy. I can go the other way," adding, "It's a matter of communication." In an interview with Parade (via HuffPo), Nicholson declared, "I'm a scamp. I don't deny it. I like myself." According to confirmation from Huston during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live," Nicholson had affairs in the 70s and beyond with Michelle Phillips and Joni Mitchell, among others.

To deal with her initial frustration with Jack Nicholson's infidelity, Anjelica Huston admits she decided to pursue an affair of her own. In 1975, she began a relationship with actor Ryan O'Neal after he flirted with her at a party. Writing in her memoir, per The New York Post, Huston recalled, "I should have known then that I was playing with fire. But I was just self-centered and egotistical and needy enough to follow up with him the next day."

However, the relationship with O'Neal quickly soured. Per her memoir, O'Neal cheated on her with stars like Ursula Andress and Bianca Jagger. Things ended when O'Neal allegedly physically assaulted her during and after a party in Beverly Hills. 

"He turned on me, grabbed me by the hair, and hit me in the forehead with the top of his skull," she wrote. Huston wrote that he continued to attack her and she eventually had to return to his home, where she was staying, before she was ultimately able to leave and reconnect with Nicholson.

Though it does not appear she experienced the level of abuse with Jack Nicholson as she did with Ryan O'Neal, Anjelica Huston still recalls that there were ways Nicholson could be controlling. She told The Guardian she was warned by members of Nicholson's staff not to draw on the telephone pads, something that frustrated her not only because it was a power move, but also because he couldn't bother to tell her personally. 

"Why can't I draw on the telephone pads in my own house! Those are the things that crop up when you move in with a man of a certain notoriety or fame. They've got people around to do stuff for them," she told the outlet, noting she didn't have a specific role as housewife or employee in her relationship with Nicholson, leaving her adrift.

Huston did admit that some of Nicholson's bad behavior excited her. In her memoir, she recalled a night when she stood up to leave as Nicholson was chatting up a model. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, saying, "Don't ever stand up like that to leave. As Huston put it, "I enjoyed his brief flash of possessiveness."

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston were together for 17 years, and the subject of marriage came up regularly, but it was clear that Nicholson never intended to be tied down. According to Huston's memoir, Nicholson mocked the idea of marriage. She recalled a moment when they were watching "The Newlywed Game" on television, which Nicholson scoffed at, prompting Huston to say, "'If you had any balls, you'd marry me.' And he said, 'Marry you? Are you kidding?'" She "sobbed for three days after that."

Publicly, the couple appeared to lean into their will-they-won't-they-marry storyline. In a 1985 interview with People, Nicholson said, "We've talked about marriage, but it never became a critical issue. If I told everybody we'd been secretly married for three years, it wouldn't change anything." Huston, interviewed at the same time for the article, is described as saying "carefully" that she and Nicholson "both believe in keeping our freedom."

Huston later admitted to The Guardian that the lack of commitment made her unhappy. "I think it was my original wish, before everything happened, that I would have a perfect romance and a lovely husband. I wanted to be like Jo March in 'Little Women.' I wanted to be married to a man who would give me lots of sons," she said. Huston did eventually marry sculptor Robert Graham, but she never had children.

Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson starred together in the 1985 film "Prizzi's Honor" as former lovers with a contentious relationship. Huston is Maerose Prizzi, the daughter of a mafia family who ran off with another man before formally breaking up with Charley (Nicholson), the family's hired hitman. Charley finds love with another woman, but he and Maerose are never fully over.

In a joint interview with People, Nicholson praised Huston in "Prizzi's Honor," telling the outlet, "There's nothing in that character she didn't get. She's done something great, really great!" Huston noted, "Maerose is a woman scorned, but she has the womanly wisdom to know that the only way to keep something forever is to let it go. 

And when she does that, he becomes hers forever. I learned from Maerose that you have to allow the things you love to be free. I hope I never forget it." "Prizzi's Honor" earned eight Oscar nominations and one win for Huston in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson did want to have children together, married or not, but struggled to conceive. In her memoir, Huston revealed she suffered from endometriosis, which impacted her fertility, though "Jack had been enthusiastic about trying in vitro." 

Huston wrote that she underwent several surgeries, but was unable to become pregnant, a pain exacerbated by the fact that Nicholson later got a partner, Rebecca Broussard, pregnant, which made Huston "feel inadequate and bitter."

Looking back on not having children with Nicholson, or any other partner, Huston admits it was probably for the best, given her own personal baggage. "I would probably have been miserable," she told The Guardian. "When I talk about my mother and not wanting to echo that relationship, I think it would've probably been very much the same way. I would have been a stay-at-home mum, and he'd have been off, doing what he did. And that's never really been me, either. I'm too noisy. I suck up too much air, myself."

The final straw in Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston's up-and-down relationship was a scandalous one when Nicholson got another woman, actress and model Rebecca Broussard, pregnant. In her memoir, Huston declared, "There's only room for one of us women in the picture, and I am going to retire from it." The breakup was an explosive one, as Huston admitted to driving to Nicholson's offices on the Paramount lot and beating him "savagely about the head and shoulders." 

After she left, they spoke on the phone a few days later, with Nicholson quipping, "Goddamn, Toots, you sure landed some blows on me. I'm bruised all over my body," to which Huston replied, "'You're welcome, Jack, you deserved it.' And we laughed. It was tragic, really."

Nicholson told Parade (via HuffPo) in 2008 that he felt "having a child was a boon to my life, but I was in a wonderful relationship with Anjelica." He told the outlet he "immediately told her what was up, and she made the decision for us." Nicholson said Huston's first response was telling him he needed to be responsible for Broussard and the baby, while admitting her second response "was to come down to my job and beat the hell out of me." In total, Nicholson has six children from five different women, including Lorraine and Ray Nicholson.

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston have remained friendly since their breakup. They were able to work together again in the 1995 film "The Crossing Guard," playing—what else—a divorced couple who despise each other. 

Nicholson told Vanity Fair that he was surprised Huston was willing to work with him again, but noted her character has "a lot of hideous things to say to me in the movie," adding, "I'm sure that's why she wanted to do it. I'm only kidding. But our scenes are all vicious."

They stayed in touch over the years, so much so that when Huston was evacuating from her home during the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, Nicholson reached out to her. "I was in a car with three dogs, two cats, and the housekeeper, and he called and asked if I was all right, and if I had someplace I was staying," she told The Guardian. "That's the bottom line with he and I – when the chips are down, he's there."