'Marry you? Are you kidding?': Anjelica Huston reveals how she cried for three days after Jack Nicholson laughed at the idea of marrying her

• Houston dated Nicholson off-and-on from 1973 to 1989
• Says she was constantly let down by the philanderer
• Cried for three days after Nicholson laughed at the idea of marriage

By Alison Johnson for MailOnline and Joel Christie for The Mailonline

Published: 14:45 EST, 9 November 2014 | Updated: 04:17 EST, 10 November 2014

Anjelica Huston has revealed the agony of her relationship with Jack Nicholson and how she once cried for three days after Nicholson laughed at the idea of marrying her.

The Prizzi's Honor star dated Nicholson, now 77, off-and-on from 1973 to 1989, but she says she was constantly let down by the philanderer as he put other women over her.

She recalls how, at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974, 'pretty French girls would come up on motorbikes and say, 'Oh, Jack, you want to ride on my bike with me?' .

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Longtime love: Anjelica Huston claims the attack made her retreat to Jack Nicholson, with whom she shared off-on relationship between 1973 and 1989. The couple are pictured here in 1976

Longtime love: The Prizzi's Honor star (pictured last month in LA) dated Nicholson (seen last year in LA) off-and-on from 1973 to 1989

'He'd get on the bike and leave me standing on the sidewalk,' she writes, '[and] I would just retire to our hotel room in tears.' 

In her new tell-all Watch Me - the second installment to the 63-year-old's 2013 book, A Story Lately Told - she reveals she was 'very much in love' with the three-time Oscar winner, but he constantly broke her heart. 

She recalls that once when they were watching the matrimonial game show 'The Newlywed Game,' Nicholson began to mock. 'Oh, little marriage,' he said. 'Little tiny marriage game.'

'I replied, 'If you had any balls, you'd marry me,' ' writes Huston in an excerpt from the book obtained by the New York Post. 

'And he said, 'Marry you? Are you kidding?' ' 

Kindred: Huston said she fell instantly in love with Nicholson, but could not handle his womanizing ways

She recalls a 1973 Carole King concert in Central Park where Joni Mitchell 'sat on the ground between Jack's legs throughout the show' which left her 'hurt and jealous.'

She says she 'sobbed for three days after that.'

Nicholson's refusal to marry her hurt even deeper because of his lack of commitment to her. 

She recalls a 1973 Carole King concert in Central Park where Joni Mitchell 'sat on the ground between Jack's legs throughout the show' which left her 'hurt and jealous.'

But when she confronted Nicholson about it, he brushed it off.

''Come on,' he said with a sigh, rolling his eyes as if I were boring him to tears, 'she's just an old friend.''

Life story: Watch Me is the second volume of Huston's memoirs

Early in their relationship. Houston's friend and fellow model Apollonia van Ravenstein told her that she slept with Nicholson the week before and that they used to be in a relationship.

When Huston confronted Nicholson, he replied, 'Oh, Toots, it was just a mercy f***.'

'That was the first time I'd heard copulation described as an act of compassion,' writes Huston.

'Not that he'd ever vowed to be faithful to me, but somehow he thought it was an acceptable answer.'

She says that the perception of Jack as a 'joker' is a 'one-dimensional view' of a complicated man.

'Jack is emotional. Life touches him, and moves him. He is a deep and serious person,' she writes in an excerpt from the book obtained by Vanity Fair.  

The Oscar winner writes she 'hadn't really been aware' of his reputation as a womaniser at first.

'It kind of grew over time, I think - that idea of Jack: he's baaad!' she says.

But when she realised that he was unfaithful, she writes: 'I didn't know what I could do about that. There's only so much you can do.' 

Their relationship came to a dramatic end when, in 1989, she received a call from Nicholson asking her to come over to his place for dinner.

Over dessert, she says, he announced that he had got a woman pregnant.

'The words came smoothly, deliberately - 'Someone's gonna have a baby,'' she writes.

The  woman in question was model and actress Rebecca Broussard, who ended up having two of Nicholson's children.

His announcement finally marked the end of their tumultuous relationship.

She told him, 'There's only room for one of us women in this picture, and I am going to retire from it.'

The end: Huston's relationship with Nicholson ended when he announced he was having a child with model and actress Rebecaa Broussard, pictured together in LA in 1994

Not a once off thing: Nicholson ended up fathering two of Broussard's children, the actress pictured in LA in August 

Not long afterward she went to his house and 'beat the living hell out of him.' 

They talked on the phone after the incident, and Jack said: 'Goddamn, Toots, you sure landed some blows on me. I'm bruised all over my body.'

She replied: 'You're welcome, Jack - you deserved it.'

She says the pair then laughed. 'It was tragic, really,' she writes. 

That Christmas, she received a package from him, a pearl-and-diamond bracelet that Frank Sinatra had given Ava Gardner. 'These pearls from your swine. With happiest wishes for the holidays - Enjoy - Yr Jack.'

Together again: Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston attend a party together in 1985

Huston also reveals in the memoir when she met actor Ryan O'Neal

'I should have known then that I was playing with fire,' Huston writes.

'But I was just self-centered and egotistical and needy enough to follow up with him the next day.' 

They went on to have a relationship for a year-and-ahalf, but On'Neal and daughter Tatum, then 12, were 'almost a couple unto themselves; he seemed to have few boundaries with her. 

'They were often photographed at restaurants and parties and clubs,' she writes.

She describes his son, Griffin, as 'only 11, surfing and smoking weed.'

But their relationship ended after the actor viciously attacked her at a Hollywood party.

The Addams Family star and O'Neal, a trained amateur boxer, were together in the 1970s.

Huston writes the Peyton Place star headbutted her during a soiree at a Beverly Hills mansion.

'He turned on me, grabbed me by the hair and hit me in the forehead with the top of his skull,' Huston alleges in the tome. 

Tempestuous: Huston - pictured left in 1971 - claims in her new book that boyfriend Ryan O'Neal - right - assaulted her at a party in Beverly Hills when they were together

Ryan O'Neal attends the Paper Moon premiere with Tatum O'Neil in 1973 (left) and is pictured this year in Los Angeles (right)

'I saw stars and reeled back. Half blind I ran away from him.'

Huston said she had been walking back to the dining room of the house after going to the bathroom when she stopped in a hallway so as not to interrupt the performance of a belly dancer.

She claimed this agitated O'Neal, who ran outside where the alleged attack occurred.

Huston said she then went back to the bathroom to collect herself and was looked after by some security guards.

Kevin O'Neal, the actor's brother, who had witnessed the assault, also comforted her, she says in the book.

Eventually Huston agreed to allow O'Neal into the bathroom to talk to her alone, however he allegedly turned on her again.

'Ryan was batting me about the head with an open hand,' the book says.

'Then abruptly he left.'

Huston broke up with O'Neal as a result.

O'Neal's agent and publicist did not return requests for comment from The MailOnline. 

The alleged attack saw Huston retreat into the arms of her longtime on-off love Nicholson.

Support: Kevin O'Neal (left), brother of Ryan O'Neal, allegedly witnessed the attack on Huston (right)

She had left Nicholson in order to take up with O'Neal. 

Huston also writes of a drug arrest for cocaine possession.

The incident occurred at Nicholson's house.

Detectives had arrived at the scene to arrest director Roman Polanski, who was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.

Anjelica Huston on inspiration behind 'STORY LATELY TOLD'...

Friends: Controversial director Roman Palanski and Jack Nicholson. Huston writes in her book that Polanski was the reason she was arrested for cocaine possession

The officers began searching Huston.

'They started to go through my handbag, where they found a gram of cocaine,' she wrote.

'Roman and I were bundled into the back of two separate police cars.

'We were under arrest.'

After finally ending her relationship with Nicholson, Huston went on to marry sculptor Robert Graham in 1992.

The two were together until Graham's death in 2008.

They did not have any children.

Love: In 1992 Huston married artist Robert Graham, seen together here in 2006. Graham died in 2008

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