Australian actor Jack Thompson has been quizzed on his infamous three-way romance with two sisters back in the 1970s and 1980s.
The 84-year-old was in polyamorous relationship with siblings Leona and Bunkie King – before Bunkie, who was just 15 when the romance began, fled when she was in her 30s, leaving Leona to continue on with Thompson alone.
Jack was quick to shut down host Michael Usher while appearing on Seven Spotlight on Sunday night when asked about the unusual arrangement, which lasted 15 years.
‘You had come out of a period of your own life, controversially, in a relationship that was not of the norm, at all. Tell me about that’ Usher ventured.
‘I won’t. I don’t discuss it. It’s like, will I talk to you about a failed marriage? No, I won’t. Don’t want to’ Thompson was resolute in his reply.
However, the actor was drawn on what the polyamorous experience taught him – and how it has led to a long life with his now wife, Leona.
‘It taught me about love. It taught me to be true to your heart’ Thompson said.
‘And I have been. I’m still there with one of those women, who loves me and I love her’.
Australian actor Jack Thompson (quizzed) has been quizzed on his infamous three way romance with two sisters back in the 1970s and 1980s
The 84-year-old was in polyamorous relationship with sisters Leona (left) and Bunkie King (right) – before Bunkie fled when she was in her 30s, leaving Leona to continue the romancr
In 2015, after many years of speculation, Bunkie laid to rest rumours about the nature of relationship with Thompson and her older sister, Leona.
King shocked and intrigued the Australian public when she entered into a relationship with Thompson, who was twice her age, while he was also involved with Leona – who is nicknamed Le.
The 68-year-old’s first meeting with Thompson was when she was 15 years old Sydney school girl, and later revealed the salacious details of their 15-year affair and unconventional arrangement.
Speaking with A Current Affair about her book, Somebody I Used to Know: Love, Loss and Jack Thompson, King said she decided to pen a novel during an argument with her son.
King also appeared with Thompson in 1975 movie Scobie Malone, had a 15-year affair with the womanising actor
At one point, he shouted: ‘I’m not proud that my mother had sex with her sister.’
This was the moment King realised there were many misconceptions about her relationship with the womanising actor.
‘That really shocked me because that wasn’t our relationship,’ she said.
‘It never entered my head [that’s what people thought], so I put it down warts and all.’
King, who has two children with her ex-husband, also revealed how she shared one man with her sister, then 20.
‘I won’t. I don’t discuss it. It’s like, will I talk to you about a failed marriage? No, I won’t. Don’t want to’ Thompson was resolute in his reply
From the start the siblings made it clear they were not going to sleep with him in the same bed.
When King first moved in with Le and Thompson she was ‘allocated one night a week’ with the actor.
Then they relocated to Collaroy – on Sydney’s North Shore – and the sisters would see him on alternating nights.
King said she had never close to Le and there were times where she felt her sister, who she is now estranged from, wished she had Thompson all to herself.
It was all or nothing with Thompson, who starred in Spyforce – an action series following Australian Military Intelligence operatives in the South West Pacific during World War II.
The actor was drawn on what the experience taught him – and how it has led to a long life with his now wife, Leona. ‘It taught me about love. It taught me to be true to your heart’ Thompson said. ‘And I have been. I’m still there with one of those women, who loves me and I love her’
In 2015, after many years of speculation, Bunkie (pictured in 2015) laid to rest rumours about the nature of relationship with Thompson and her older sister, Leona
‘I was happy for whatever crumbs came off the table. It did cause problems with jealousy and things like that. I don’t think either of us would have chosen it that way,’ King said.
Talking to New Idea, King said their relationship in many ways was ‘quite old-fashioned’.
‘We had separate bedrooms. He was just sleeping with both of us,’ she said.
In her interview with ACA, King said her relationship was not a ‘unique situation’.
‘It is in western society but it’s not a unique situation for a man to have more than one wife,’ she said.
‘In western society, a man generally speaking has a wife and a mistress or maybe a couple of mistresses.’
Despite his commitment to two women, King claims Thompson still had time to be unfaithful to her and Le.
When King first moved in with Leona and Thompson she was ‘allocated one night a week’ with the actor. Pictured in 1980
As Jack’s fame grew, journalists clamoured for details about the nature of his threesome relationship
She said what hurt her the most about his alleged infidelities was the fact he was not open, honest and upfront about it.
King also revealed her sister did not know about her regular afternoon visits from Thompson at their mother’s house when he started to court her.
She writes: ‘One night, he and I are kissing and cuddling in their bedroom when Le [Leona] bursts in the door yelling, ‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘He jumps up off the bed and tries to calm her down. I bolt out of the room, down the stairs, through the front door and out into the street.
‘I know there’s something wrong with what we’ve been doing. He’s obviously Le’s boyfriend and I feel bad for her, but I don’t know how to give him up.’
It was the same for Jack too and, with his popularity at its height in the mid-1970s, the Wake In Fright star bought a rambling farm in the hills above Coffs Harbour, on the NSW mid-north coast, and convinced the sisters to share an ‘open’ and ‘honest’ relationship with him.
They moved in together, King confined to the smaller room, while Leona shared the master bedroom with the actor, now dubbed ‘Jack The Lady Killer’ by the media.
In her book, she also speaks frankly about her drug use, ranging from marijuana to acid to heroin.
But she did not classify her drug use as ‘hardcore’.
‘Hardcore to me is someone who is basically mainlining. It was the 60s and the 70s,’ King said.
They moved in together, King confined to the smaller room, while Leona shared the master bedroom with the actor, now dubbed ‘Jack The Lady Killer’ by the media
Jack claimed that he occasionally felt ‘like a bone being fought over by two dogs’
During the early years of their relationship, Cleo magazine featured Thompson reclined on a sofa in a pose emulating a classic nude, Titian’s Venus d’Urbino, catapulting him to sex symbol status overnight.
In 1972, King revealed she fell pregnant for the first time, having forgotten to take the Pill, and underwent the first of three terminations over 15 years.
As Jack’s fame grew, journalists clamoured for details about the nature of his threesome relationship and in October 1974, he granted Sydney’s Daily Telegraph an interview.
Published under the headline ‘Jack and his Jills’, he claimed that he occasionally felt ‘like a bone being fought over by two dogs.’
The truth, however, no doubt lies somewhere in between.
King says a serious showdown in Spain forced her to finally flee and maintains throughout her 15 years as Jack’s lover, she never knew if she was genuinely wanted or was ‘just an interloper.’
Today she works in nursing and is divorced with a son Stephan, and daughter, and lives a quiet life south of Sydney.
And for his part, Jack remains with Leona, with whom he shares a son Billy, and the pair lead a reclusive life in Ulong in New South Wales.
The visits in the 1970s increased to three a week and, after months of spending time together, she fell hopelessly in love knowing he was with Le.
King has revealed in her memoirs how, as a virgin, she struggled to dampen her feelings for the blond tanned hunk and desperately craved his love even after her sister caught them kissing.
