Automobile accidents in 1994 and 1999 both resulted in legal action against Nicholson; after the 1994 incident, he was charged with misdemeanor and assault after using a golf club to smash the windshield of a car whose driver he believed had cut him off.

Along with fellow Hollywood powerhouse (and now happily married father) Warren Beatty, Nicholson has long been known for his wild antics and active romantic life. His tumultuous 17-year relationship with Huston ended in 1989, when she learned he had fathered a child with Rebecca Broussard, a former waitress who appeared in The Two Jakes. Nicholson and Broussard’s on-again-off-again romance lasted until the late 1990s and produced two children, Lorraine and Raymond. Nicholson has another daughter, Jennifer, from his four-year-long marriage to the actress Sandra Knight during the 1960s. In 1999, Nicholson began dating Lara Flynn Boyle, an actress best known to audiences from her role on the popular television show The Practice.

Nicholson lives on an estate in Los Angeles.