Matthew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson’s Theory That They’re Brothers Is No Joke

Longtime friends and co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson may have the “great bromance” of Hollywood, according to Kelly Ripa, but their bond might be even more than that. The two actors legitimately think they might be half-brothers, as McConaughey explained on Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast on April 11. He laid out their very plausible theory, which centers on his mom and Harrelson’s dad’s real-life connection.

McConaughey, 53, and Harrelson, 61, starred together in the acclaimed HBO drama True Detective in 2014 and formed a close friendship. Their families have bonded as well, to the point that they’ve been known to vacation together. On one such trip, the two found out information that led them to suspect they could be biological brothers, beyond just their strong physical resemblance.

“In Greece a few years ago, we’re sitting around talking about how close we are and our families and et cetera,” McConaughey explained. “My mom is there, and she says, ‘Woody, I knew your dad.’”

She didn’t just mean she knew him, in McConaughey’s mind. “Everyone was aware of the ellipsis that my mom left after knew,” he said. “It was a loaded K-N-E-W.”

While it doesn’t sound like the maybe-brothers got full details from McConaughey’s mom, they figured out more information. They “did some math” and discovered that Harrelson’s father, convicted hitman Charles Voyde Harrelson, was on furlough during a rocky time in McConaughey’s parents’ marriage. “My mom and dad were in their second divorce,” he added, “then there’s possible receipts in places out in west Texas where there might have been a gathering or a meeting… or a knew moment.”

The Academy Award winner’s parents, James and Mary McConaughey, had a long and unorthodox marriage. They married each other three times and divorced twice before James died in 1992. During the periods when they were divorced, their kids would just think their mom was on “extended vacation,” McConaughey told Elle in 2013. “I don’t think I knew until after Dad died that those two vacations were divorces,” he said. “They were wild, man. They loved hard.”

Though McConaughey and Harrelson are curious about their possible biological connection, they haven’t gotten a DNA test yet. If they did turn out to be brothers, that would mean James wasn’t McConaughey’s father, and the Gentlemen actor isn’t necessarily ready for that. Telling Ripa why they haven’t done it yet, he noted, “It’s a little harder for me [than Harrelson] ’cause he’s asking me to take the chance and go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad of 53 years of believing it?’ I’ve got a little more skin in the game.”

Whether or not the two are truly half-brothers, they are chosen family. Each has three kids who calls the other uncle, their families confuse photos of them, and they’ll be starring as versions of themselves in an upcoming Apple TV+ comedy called Brother From Another Mother. McConaughey called the show a “love story” based on them and their families coming together on his ranch and “the conflicts and comedy” of it all.