Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson dated on-again, off-again until he revealed that he was going to have a child with someone much younger.
Not all people are meant for longterm relationships and they can end up hurting their partner, who has faith in them. It might be easy to feel attracted to someone but sustaining a relationship is a lot of hard work, which most people do. Loving someone can be traumatic and actress Anjelica Huston, 69, has experienced that personal hell with Jack Nicholson, 83.
The Addam's Family actress had revealed the difficulties and heartbreaks she experienced because of The Shining actor in her memoir Watch Me in 2014. The couple met in 1973 and stayed in an on-again, off-again relationship for 17 years, most of which was tempestuous. They met at a party in his home in 1973 for the first time and danced the night away. The next morning he sent her home in a cab and she had to wait a few days before he called to set up another date. Then he went on to cancel the date due to a previous obligation, which turned out to be a person: Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips, Nicholson’s ex-girlfriend, as per Pagesix.
Huston, the daughter of legendary film director John Huston, began her career as a model early in life and had already been used to attractive men around her. However, she couldn't deny his charm. But, so couldn't many other women, with whom she had to share his attention.
In 1973, during a Carole King concert in Central Park, Joni Mitchell "sat on the ground between Jack’s legs throughout the show," as per The Royal Tenenbaums actress. It made her feel "hurt and jealous," and when she confronted him, he dismissed her concerns.
"Come on she’s just an old friend," he said, rolling his eyes and ignoring her tears. Early in the relationship, The Witches actress' friend Apollonia van Ravenstein, a model, told her that she had had a physical relationship with the Batman actor. When she asked him about that, he said "Oh, Toots, it was just a mercy f—. That was the first time I’d heard copulation described as an act of compassion."
"Not that he’d ever vowed to be faithful to me, but somehow he thought it was an acceptable answer," Huston said. There were also moments of possessiveness he had flashed. He was also generous in gifting and she notes that "he might buy you a Rolls-Royce off the cuff," and did buy her "a beautiful Mercedes-Benz."
He kept telling her that he didn't want to get married and in 1975 she found the reason why. She found notes from a girl "saying how much she missed Jack and how tender their lovemaking had been and how she couldn’t wait to hear from him again," as per CheatSheet. Unable to cope with his philandering anymore, she broke up with Nicholson and eventually started dating Ryan O'Neal. However, just weeks after they started dating, things went sour between them.
Huston went back to Nicholson, who did not change his ways. By the late 1980s, the couple was not together full-time anymore but it wasn't until 1990 that she felt the final blow. He told her that he was having a baby with another woman, who was 12 years younger than him. Soon, she saw an article in Playboy Magazine that quoted a young woman’s intimate relationship with Nicholson.
The Prizzi's Honor actress went to his office in Paramount Pictures and let the blows fall on him. All the years of anger and resentment came rushing out. "He was coming out of the bathroom when I attacked him," she writes. "I don’t think I kicked him, but I beat him savagely about the head and shoulders. He was ducking and bending, and I was going at him like a prizefighter, raining a vast array of direct punches."
Decades later, Huston was able to talk about it and told Alec Baldwin in a podcast, "He was too easily distracted. I can’t say I enjoyed him all that much. I spent a lot of time in tears and a lot of time crying when I was with Jack, a lot of the time feeling slighted or I wasn’t getting enough attention from him. I always knew that I wasn’t the most important thing in Jack’s life."
References:
https://nypost.com/2014/11/08/inside-the-brutal-love-affair-of-jack-nicholson-anjelica-huston/
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-long-did-anjelica-huston-and-jack-nicholson-date.html/
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538242/here-s-the-thing-with-alec-baldwin
