Woody Harrelson Wants Matthew McConaughey to Take a DNA Test to Find out If They’re Brothers

After last week’s viral story about Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson’s shared family history, Harrelson wants to find out the truth. On Tuesday night, Harrelson appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he said he wants McConaughey to take a DNA test to find out once and for all if they are related. He also hinted that there might be more to the story than fans have heard.

Last week, McConaughey revealed that he recently found out his mother had some history with Harrelson’s mother at some point in the past, but he seemed to be joking when he said that he and Harrelson could be half-brothers. However, onTuesday Harrelson seemed enthusiastic about the idea. He said: “Well, I’ll just say there is some veracity to that thought because we talked to Ma Mac, Matthew’s legitimate mother, and she let us know one time… I mean, this is crazy. We were in Greece watching the US team win the World Cup and I don’t know, I mentioned something about regrets.”

“And I said, ‘You know, it’s odd that my father has no regrets,’” Harrelson went on. 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. ‘I knew your father.’”

Harrelson felt that the timing of this unspecified but suggestive meet-up lined up perfectly with McConaughey’s birth. He said: “The year of his birth, nine months before, she was on a sabbatical from her relationship with his supposed father, Jim.” Still, Harrelson acknowledged that the test results could be a big revelation for McConaughey, one he might not be ready for.

“We want to go for a test, but for him, it’s a much more big deal. I mean he feels like he is losing a father. But I’m like, no, you’re gaining a different father and a brother,” he said.

For those catching up, McConaughey first teased this story on Kelly Ripa’s SiriusXM podcast last week, Let’s Talk Off Camera. He told the same story as Harrelson, noting that his mother’s rendezvous with Harrelson’s father came during McConaughey’s parents’ second divorce. They would later reconcile and raise McConaughey together.

Harrelson’s father Charles was one of the most infamous organized crime figures of the 20th century, having confessed to dozens of murders and even been implicated in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. His story has been explored at length in the 2020 Spotify podcast Son of a Hitman. Charles passed away in 2007 while McConaughey’s father passed away in 1992. So far, McConaughey hasn’t responded to calls for him to take a DNA test.