Jack Thompson breaks silence about his threesome romance with Bunkie King and her older sister Leona: ‘It taught me about love’

Australian actor Jack Thompson has been questioned about his infamous three-way romance with two sisters in the 1970s and 1980s.

The 84-year-old was in a polyamorous relationship with siblings Leona and Bunkie King – before Bunkie, who was just 15 when the romance began, fled in her 30s, leaving Leona to continue on her own with Thompson.

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 came out of a period of your own life in a controversial way, in a relationship that was not the norm at all. Tell me about that,” Usher ventured.

‘I won’t do that. I don’t discuss it. It’s like, should I talk to you about a failed marriage? No, I won’t. I don’t want to.’ Thompson was firm in his response.

However, the actor was drawn to what the polyamorous experience taught him – and how it has led to longevity with his now wife Leona.

‘It taught me about love. It taught me to stay 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 (questioned) has been questioned about his infamous threesome romance with two sisters in the 1970s and 1980s

The 84-year-old was in a polyamorous relationship with sisters Leona (left) and Bunkie King (right) – before Bunkie fled in her 30s, leaving Leona to continue the romantic relationship.

In 2015, after many years of speculation, Bunkie put aside rumors about the nature of the relationship with Thompson and her older sister Leona.

King shocked and intrigued Australian audiences when she entered into a relationship with Thompson, who was twice her age, while he was also dating Leona – who goes by the nickname Le.

The 68-year-old’s first encounter with Thompson was when she was a 15-year-old Sydney schoolgirl, and she later revealed the salacious details of their 15-year affair and unconventional tryst.

Speak with A current issue About her book, Somebody I Used to Know: Love, Loss and Jack Thompson, King said she decided to write a novel during an argument with her son.

King also appeared with Thompson in the 1975 film Scobie Malone and had a 15-year affair with the womanizing actor

At one point he shouted: ‘I’m not proud that my mother had sex with her sister.’

This is when King realized that there were many misconceptions about her relationship with the womanizing actor.

“That really shocked me because that wasn’t our relationship,” she said.

‘It never crossed my mind [that’s what people thought]so I wrote it down, warts and all.”

King, who has two children with her ex-husband, also revealed how she shared one husband with her sister, who was 20 at the time.

‘I won’t do that. I don’t discuss it. It’s like, should I talk to you about a failed marriage? No, I won’t. I don’t want to.’ Thompson was firm in his response

From the start, the siblings made it clear that they would not sleep in the same bed with him.

When King first moved in with Le and Thompson, she was assigned “one night a week” with the actor.

They then moved to Collaroy – on Sydney’s north shore – and the sisters visited him on alternating evenings.

King said she was never close to Le and that there were times when she felt like her sister, from whom she is now estranged, wished she had Thompson all to herself.

It was all or nothing with Thompson, who starred in Spyforce – an action series that follows Australian Military Intelligence agents in the South West Pacific during World War II.

The actor was drawn to what the experience taught him – and how it led to longevity with his now wife Leona. ‘It taught me about love. It taught me to stay true to your heart,” Thompson said. ‘And I have been. I’m still here with one of those women, who loves me and I love her’

In 2015, after many years of speculation, Bunkie (pictured in 2015) put aside rumors about the nature of the relationship with Thompson and her older sister, Leona.

‘I was happy with the crumbs that came from the table. It caused problems with jealousy and things like that. I don’t think either of us would have chosen it that way,” King said.

Talk to New ideaKing said their relationship was “pretty old-fashioned” in many ways.

‘We had separate bedrooms. He just slept with both of us,” she said.

In her interview with ACA, King said her relationship was not a “unique situation.”

“It happens in Western society, but it is not a unique situation for a man to have more than one wife,” she said.

“In Western society, a man generally has a wife and a mistress, or perhaps a few 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 assigned “one evening a week” with the actor. Pictured in 1980

As Jack’s fame grew, journalists clamored for details about the nature of his threesome relationship

She said what hurt her most about his alleged infidelity was the fact that he was not open, honest and forthright about it.

King also revealed that her sister was unaware of Thompson’s regular afternoon visits to their mother’s home when he began courting her.

She writes, “One night he and I kiss and cuddle in their bedroom as Le [Leona] bursts through the door and shouts, “What the hell are you doing?”

‘He jumps off the bed and tries to calm her down. I flee from the room, down the stairs, through the front door and out into the street.

“I know there’s something wrong with what we did. He’s obviously Le’s friend and I feel sorry for her, but I don’t know how to give him up.’

The same was true of Jack, and when his popularity peaked in the mid-1970s, the Wake In Fright star bought a sprawling farm in the hills above Coffs Harbour, on the NSW north coast, and convinced the sisters to create an ‘open ‘ and share an ‘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 candidly about her drug use, which ranged from marijuana to acid to heroin.

But she didn’t classify her drug use as “hardcore.”

‘For me, hardcore is someone who mainly mainlines. It was the 1960s and 1970s,” 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 at times he felt ‘like a bone that two dogs are fighting over’

During the early years of their relationship, Thompson was featured in Cleo magazine reclining on a couch in a pose that mimicked a classical nude, Titian’s Venus d’Urbino, propelling him to sex symbol status overnight catapulted.

In 1972, King revealed that she became pregnant for the first time after forgetting to take the pill, and had the first of three abortions over a fifteen-year period.

As Jack’s fame grew, journalists clamored for details about the nature of his threesome relationship and in October 1974 he gave an interview to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

Published under the headline ‘Jack and his Jills’, he claimed that at times he felt ‘like a bone that two dogs are fighting over’.

However, the truth undoubtedly lies somewhere in between.

King says a serious confrontation in Spain eventually forced her to flee, and during the fifteen years she was Jack’s lover, she never knew whether she was truly wanted or “just an intruder.”

Today she works in nursing and is divorced, has a son Stephan and a 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 live a secluded life in Ulong in New South Wales.

The visits increased to three a week in the 1970s and after months of spending time together, she fell hopelessly in love knowing he was with Le.

King has revealed in her memoir how, as a virgin, she struggled to temper her feelings for the blonde hunk and desperately longed for his love even after her sister caught them kissing.