Matthew McConaughey celebrated Woody Harrelson’s 65th birthday with a throwback photograph and a message that revived one of Hollywood’s most unusual family mysteries.
McConaughey marked his longtime friend’s July 23 birthday by calling him a brother while adding a telling question mark to the familiar phrase “from another mother.”
The actors have spent years discussing the possibility that they could share the same biological father. Neither has announced taking a DNA test, and their potential family connection remains unconfirmed.
Their Friendship Began Before ‘True Detective’
View this post on Instagram
McConaughey shared an older photograph showing the actors embracing during an earlier stage of their careers. “From another mother? Happy birthday brother,” he wrote in the caption.
McConaughey and Harrelson first shared the screen in Ron Howard’s 1999 satire EDtv. They reunited for the 2008 comedy Surfer, Dude before starring as detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart in the first season of HBO’s True Detective.
Their relationship has also extended to their families. McConaughey said his children call Harrelson “Uncle Woody,” while Harrelson’s children know him as “Uncle Matthew.”
“Where I start and where he ends and where he starts and I end has always been a murky line,” McConaughey said during a 2023 appearance on Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa. He added that members of both families sometimes mistake photographs of one actor for the other.
McConaughey’s Mother Started the Half-Brother Theory
The speculation began after McConaughey’s mother, Kay, made a suggestive comment during a family trip to Greece. McConaughey recalled her telling Harrelson, “Woody, I knew your dad,” while placing unusual emphasis on the word “knew.”
The actors began comparing their family histories and found that Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson, may have been in West Texas during a period when McConaughey’s parents were separated.
Harrelson later said there was “some veracity” to the theory and expressed interest in taking a DNA test. McConaughey has been more hesitant because a result could challenge his lifelong belief that James McConaughey was his biological father.
“It’s a little easier for Woody to say, ‘Come on, let’s do it,’” McConaughey explained. “It’s a little harder for me because he’s asking me to take a chance and go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad?’”
Apple TV’s ‘Brothers’ Turns the Mystery Into a Comedy
McConaughey and Harrelson will play fictionalized versions of themselves in Apple TV’s eight-episode comedy Brothers. The story begins when the wedding of Harrelson’s fictional daughter falls apart, prompting him to move his family onto McConaughey’s ranch in Austin.
Their living arrangement descends into chaos after McConaughey’s mother, played by Holland Taylor, reveals that the two friends may actually be biological brothers. The series will premiere Sept. 23 with two episodes, followed by one new episode each Wednesday through Nov. 4. McConaughey and Harrelson both star in and executive produce the comedy.