Maury Povich Offers To “Come Out Of Retirement” To Help Matthew McConaughey And Woody Harrelson Determine If They’re Related: “We Could Do Primetime DNA”

By Alex Vena
Published Sep. 21, 2023, 4:06 p.m. ET

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Matthew McConaughey

Maury Povich just offered to come out of retirement to help Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson figure out if the two share a father.

In a video obtained by E! News, Povich told the stars he “heard about the possibilities” of them sharing a father.

“I mean, Matthew, I don’t know you,” he began. “Woody, you’re my pal. But guess what. I would come out of retirement. We could do primetime DNA. Maury’s back with Woody and Matthew.”

In the video, Povich donned a Washington Commanders hat, which he took off to reveal his gray hair.

“I’ll even get my showtime color back in my hair,” he quipped. “Woody’s got my number. I’m ready.”

McConaughey had the chance to react in an interview with Adrienne Bailon-Houghton included in the E! News video.

“I didn’t know you were a Commanders fan, either,” McConaughey, a fellow Commanders fan, said about Povich. “I saw that. I don’t know if we’re gonna be calling you to do it on your show, but I like the way you think.”

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey
Photo: Getty Images

In April, McConaughey revealed on Kelly Ripa‘s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera that his mother knew Harrelson’s father, and that they ultimately “found out that [Harrelson’s] dad was on furlough at the same time that my mom and dad were in their second divorce.”

However, McConaughey was wary about taking a DNA test.

“Look, it’s a little easier for Woody to say, ‘Come on, let’s do [DNA tests],’ because what’s the skin in it for him?” he told Ripa. “It’s a little harder for me because he’s asking me to take a chance to go, ‘Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me my dad may not be my dad after 53 years of believing that?’ I got a little more skin in the game.”

Harrelson echoed McConaughey’s sentiments on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that same month, saying that “for [McConaughey], it’s a much more big deal.”

“I mean, he feels like he’s losing a father,” he told Colbert. “But I’m like, no you’re gaining a different father and a brother.”