A fine bromance Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey: are they really siblings?

Families can be complicated. Long-kept secrets can simmer away for generations before exploding. Children can learn that they have different biological fathers. Cousins can learn that they are actually siblings removed at birth.

- Stuart Heritage

And Matthew McConaughey can have a bit of a hunch that Woody Harrelson is his half-brother.

This last one is playing out in real-time. On an episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, McConaughey, 53, started to discuss Harrelson, his co-star in True Detective – and suggested the two might share the same father – a contract killer who claimed to have shot John F Kennedy.

“You know, where I start and where he ends, and where he starts and I end, has always been like a murky line.

“My kids call him Uncle Woody. His kids call me Uncle Matthew. And you see pictures of us and my family thinks a lot of pictures of him are me. His family thinks a lot of pictures of me are him.”

Which makes some amount of sense, doesn’t it? They are both professional actors. They were both born in Texas in the 1960s. They both have or have had, a fondness for marijuana. Their hairlines have receded in similar directions. But here’s where things get weirder. “In Greece a few years ago, we’re sitting around talking about how close we are and our families,”

McConaughey continued. “And my mom is there, and she says, ‘Woody, I knew your dad.’ Everyone was aware of the ellipses that my mom left after ‘knew.’ It was a loaded K-N-E-W.”