Donald Sutherland's Secret Memoir — OK! Reveals Shocking Contents of Late Movie Icon's Hidden Autobiography

OK! can reveal Donald Sutherland secretly left behind a completed memoir his family has refused to publish – a decision now at the center of claims the book was simply too candid to release.

The autobiography, titled Made Up, But Still True, was submitted to Sutherland's publisher just three months before the towering Canadian star's death in June 2024 at age 88, and was scheduled for publication in November 2024.

Instead, Penguin Random House, through its Crown imprint, is now suing a representative of the actor's estate, alleging the manuscript is being deliberately blocked. The publisher is seeking the return of a $400,000 advance, arguing the estate has prevented the book from reaching print.

According to those familiar with the manuscript, the concern is not literary quality but content.

One publishing source told us: "It was repeatedly described as disarmingly direct. Donald did not soften or sanitize his accounts of personal relationships, unresolved regrets or family tensions, and that degree of emotional transparency is believed to have unsettled those now responsible for deciding whether the book should be released."

Sutherland's career spanned more than six decades, from The Dirty Dozen and Klute to Ordinary People and The Hunger Games.

He was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2018 and widely regarded as one of the most formidable actors of his generation.

Off screen, his life was equally complex – three marriages, five children and a romantic history that included a highly public affair with Jane Fonda, now 88, during the early 1970s.

In conversations shortly before his death, Sutherland spoke openly about the memoir and his intention to publish it. He confirmed its existence plainly, saying: "I haven't published it. But I've written it."

Asked what kind of book it was, he rejected the idea of a conventional life story. "No," he said, before adding to one pal: "Mine is different from his," while referring to Barack Obama's memoir.

Those close to the situation say the manuscript included painful reflections on family estrangement, particularly his fractured relationship with his troubled eldest son, Kiefer, 59.

Speaking about his children, Donald said: "My wife, when we were separated, was not honest with them. They believed it, my daughter less so now, my son goes in and out."

He later described a period of silence between father and son, saying: "I couldn't get hold of him for five years. It breaks my heart, actually, to be truthful."

Yet the memoir also reportedly captured moments of deep pride. Donald recalled watching Kiefer rehearse for an early audition.

"He made me weep, it was so pure," he said. Friends say the emotional directness of such experiences may explain the resistance to publish his allegedly overly-brutal memoir.

One friend said: "Donald was deeply committed to speaking honestly, even when that honesty was uncomfortable. He did not believe in softening the edges of his own story, particularly when it came to family, and that unfiltered approach may be precisely what has made the memoir so hard for others to embrace."

Donald himself appeared aware of the risk of releasing an autobiography. But when asked whether the memoir might be destroyed during a mass shredding of his personal papers, he replied: "I don't want to get it shredded."

Pals say the actor was adamant the book should survive, even as decades of correspondence were destroyed.

His estate has not commented publicly on the lawsuit surrounding the book.

But the dispute has only intensified interest in the unpublished memoir and what it might reveal.

One publishing insider said: "Throughout his acting life, Donald was known for committing fully to emotional truth in his performances. Those familiar with the manuscript say he approached his memoir in exactly the same way, laying out his own life with the same rigor – stripped of safeguards, unvarnished and unwilling to dilute difficult truths."