"I love you both": Jack Thompson's 15-year affair with two sisters
With over 50 films under his belt, Jack Thompson has solidified his place within the Australian film industry.
However, a little-known fact about the star is that he used to be in a polyamorous relationship with two sisters.
Bunkie and Leona King were just 15 and 20 years old respectively when they started to get involved in a relationship with Jack in the 1960s and '70s.
Leona had moved in with Jack whilst he continued to see Bunkie secretly.
In a memoir written by Bunkie called Somebody That I Used to Know, she details her thoughts and feelings about the relationship in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Self-described as a “flat-chested, scrawny teenager” who had “never made out or even kissed” anyone, 15-year-old Bunkie was elated when Jack stopped by to invite her to her first “adult” party.
Her mother didn’t let her go, but that didn’t stop the pair from meeting weekly to hang out.
Bunkie explained her infatuation with now 78-year-old Jack, despite knowing he was her sister’s boyfriend and even though the pair had been caught kissing.
“One night, he and I are kissing and cuddling in their bedroom when Le bursts in the door and starts yelling, 'What the hell are you doing?'
“He's obviously Le's boyfriend and I feel bad for her, but I don't know how to give him up and just walk away.”
However, Bunkie said that the trio tried to make it work after they found themselves in this predicament.
“Jack suggests the possibility of a relationship that encompasses the three of us. He says we can make it work, because others have; it's about having love and understanding, being honest and open with each other and giving it a go.
Bunkie admits in her memoir that Jack proclaimed: "We've found ourselves in this predicament, and the fact is I love you both."
According to an interview with New Idea in 1979, Jack is quoted as saying:
“I had someone the other day ask me if I was still living with the two sisters. And I wondered how an 11-year relationship could still be news … It only continues to be a relationship for the same reason as any relationship. There presumably must be a lot of trust, a lot of discussion and a lot of love."
In an interview with A Current Affair, Bunkie said that she was “captivated” by Jack's attention.
"In some societies a man has a wife and a mistress, or maybe a couple of mistresses. But it is unusual in Western society ... I was captivated by his attention," she admitted.
However, as the relationship evolved, Bunkie felt no trust and as her relationship with her sister began to disintegrate due to Bunkie’s feelings of “guilt about being there”, things began to turn bleak.
Bunkie soon left the relationship in 1985 after a fight in Madrid airport.
She decided to write about her experience after she realised that, as a divorced 60-year-old mother of two, her son was still unhappy with the fact that “my mother had sex with her sister”.
Whilst that never actually happened, Bunkie decided to write the memoir to set the record straight once and for all.
Her sister Leona is still with Jack after all these years, however, the two sisters are estranged.