Rachel Nichols' Husband Max Is the Son of a Famous Hollywood Director (2024)

Famous journalist and sportscaster Rachel Nichols' husband is Max Nichols, the son of Mike Nichols, the iconic Academy Award-winning director of "The Graduate."

Showtime Sports journalist Rachel Nichols's work is well-known to NBA and NFL fans, but she has kept her personal life obscure. Rachel Nichols's husband is Max Nichols, a video and film director.

The couple has been married for over 20 years but keeps their relationship and family out of the spotlight as much as possible. Here is all we know about the journalist and the film director's romance.

Max Nichols andRachel Nichols at the premiere of "Two Night Stand" in 2014 in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images

Rachel Alexander Nichols was born in Potomac, Maryland, on October 18, 1973, and was a sports fan from her childhood. Max Nichols was born two months later, on December 9, 1973, and he, too, fell in love with movies and storytelling as a child.

Max did a bit of acting as a child and grew up surrounded by the mystique of the cinema. His father was the famous theater and film director Mike Nichols, and his mother is novelist and screenwriter Annabel Davis-Goff, the author of "Walled Gardens" and "The Dower House."

Mike Nichols and son Max Nichols at the 38th AFI Life Achievement Award honoring Mike Nichols in 2010 in Culver City, California. | Source: Getty Images

Max Nichols Followed His Famous Father's Footsteps

Max's dad, Mike Nichols, is best known to fans for his Academy Award-winning movie "The Graduate" with iconic actor Dustin Hoffman and many other films like "Catch-22" and Carrie Fisher's autobiographical "Postcards from the Edge."

During Mike's extraordinary career, he worked with Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl," Cher and Meryl Streep in Silkwood," Jack Nicholson in "Wolf," and Harrison Ford in "Regarding Henry."

Max had his first taste of showbiz at the age of 8 when he acted in Milos Forman's 1981 film "Ragtime" alongside stars like the legendary James Cagney, Brad Dourif, Elizabeth McGovern, Mandy Patinkin, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Max's work credits include the music video for T-Pain's "I'm 'n Luv (wit a Stripper)," and he made his film debut as a director in 2014 with the movie "Two Night Stand," a rom-com starring Miles Teller, and Analeigh Tipton.

Rachel and Max Tied the Knot in 2001, but Met Way Before

Rachel and Max's love story sounds like an old-fashioned rom-com: the two met as teens at a Maine summer camp and dated but ended up losing touch. They met again years later as adults when he looked her up and fell in love all over again.

The couple married in romantic Venice in 2001 in a Jewish ceremony attended by their family and close friends, including Rachel's parents, Jane and Ronald Jacobs. Rachel has Instagram and Twitter accounts and millions of followers, but she never posts about her personal life.

They Have Twin Daughters

Max and Rachel welcomed twin girls in 2011, but the sportscaster has never posted photos of her daughters and never revealed their names. She spoke about her children for the first time in 2020 when she revealed that the girls were devastated when she was forced to cancel their birthday party.

Because their birthday fell just weeks after the restrictions were imposed to curb the Covid pandemic, they were among the first kids to feel the pinch. She said to the disconsolate third graders who thought they would be eight forever:

Max and Rache's girls got through the pandemic with drive-by playdates, and now that the pandemic is over, Rachel revealed in a rare Instagram post, they celebrate their half-birthdays to make up for the fun they missed during social distancing.