During an appearance on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Woody Harrelson confirmed Matthew McConaughey’s wild claim that they could be biological brothers, and called for a DNA test.
Harrelson revealed that he talked with McConaughey’s mother, Mary Kathlene McCabe, and something in her reply made him realize that they could be brothers. McConaughey’s mother had made a cryptic comment about knowing Harrelson’s father, Charles.”
“We want to go and (do a DNA) test, but for him, it’s a much more big deal,” Harrelson said on the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “I mean he feels like he is losing a father. But I’m like, no, you’re gaining a different father and a brother.”
McConaughey suspects that Harrelson’s father had a sexual encounter with his mother while she was on a sabbatical from her relationship with Jim, his supposed father. McConaughey had been reluctant to have a DNA test, but Harrelson did not have the same reservations.
“It’s crazy. We were in Greece watching the US team win the World Cup and I mentioned something about regrets,” Harrelson said. “And I said, ‘You know, it’s odd that my father has no regrets.’ And I have known Ma Mac a long time, and she goes, ‘I knew… your father.’ And it was the ellipses I found a little troubling, or interesting.”
McConaughey and Harrelson have been friends for a long time, and they both starred in the Emmy-winning HBO crime drama True Detective in 2014.
Their friendship and bond will be tested in their new Apple TV+ series, Brother From Another Mother, where they will play themselves, and their families will live together on Matthew’s ranch in Texas.
A resurfaced image of McConaughey and Harrelson from 2019, taken while they were filming Brother From Another Mother, shows an eerie resemblance between the two.
McConaughey’s children call Harrelson “Uncle Woody,” and Harrelson’s kids call McConaughey “Uncle Matthew.” The two have been like family to each other, and the possibility of them being biological brothers has only made their bond stronger.
Woody’s father, Charles, was a hitman who was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of Judge Wood Jr. in San Antonio, Texas, in 1979. Despite this, Woody visited his father regularly until his death in 2007.
Woody has described his father as one of the most articulate, well-read, and charming people he has ever known, but he is still gauging whether he merits his loyalty or friendship. He looks at him more as a friend than a father.
Although McConaughey is apprehensive about taking a DNA test, Harrelson believes that it would be worth it, as McConaughey would be gaining a different father and a brother, not losing one.
It is a little harder for McConaughey because he has believed for 53 years that his father is his biological father. However, the friendship between McConaughey and Harrelson will always remain the same, and they will always be like family to each other, no matter what the DNA test results are.