Michael Douglas is publicly coming clean about his past romance with his Romancing the Stone costar Kathleen Turner.
In an excerpt from his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, Douglas, 82, revealed that he secretly dated Turner, 72, after meeting on the set of the 1984 film.
“Kathleen was smart, funny and sexy with a deep, sultry voice that became her signature. I instantly liked her, and we were immediately attracted to each other,” Douglas wrote in a passage, obtained by People on Friday, October 2, claiming that his marriage to Diandra Luker was already “in a bad place.”
Douglas and Luker, who share son Cameron, had been separated when the actor went to film Romancing the Stone.
“I left for Mexico still technically married, but separated,” he recalled. “The chemistry I had with Kathleen Turner was so strong, audiences have been certain for years that we were in a relationship together while making the film. We both denied it through Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile [in 1985], War of the Roses [in 1989], and even while doing press a few years ago for The Kominsky Method [in 2021].”
After production on each of their multiple joint projects, Douglas and Turner continually stressed that “nothing ever happened between” the two actors during Romancing the Stone despite their “amazing chemistry.”
“That was a lie. It was a lie meant to protect my wife and son, a lie we told the world for 40 years,” Douglas penned. “The truth is that during the production of Romancing the Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship. It wasn’t a fly-by night affair; it grew naturally from how closely we were working together, how much pressure we were under, how much we respected and cared for one another, and how attracted we were to each other.”
According to Douglas, he and Turner “never hit a rough spot” in their clandestine relationship.
“We found each other first as friends, then as costars, and finally, as lovers,” Doughlas recalled. “Following an exhausting day of shooting in the jungle, we’d go out and have a meal, or head out with the group and afterward I would sneak into her hotel room after everybody was asleep. There were no cameras in elevators, no assistants using cell phones to take pictures. As [our characters] Jack and Joan were falling in love, Kathleen and I were keeping the chemistry alive. We kept our involvement hidden.”
Douglas’ romance with Turner ultimately hit the brakes when Luker brought son Cameron, then 5, to visit his dad on set.
“Diandra grew suspicious. A woman’s intuition, I suppose,” he quipped. “At some point, she was alone with Kathleen and made it clear to her that we were still married. Her view of the terms of our separation was different from mine. This gave Kathleen pause. She didn’t want to interfere. … After that visit, Kathleen and I ended things, and I went back to Diandra.”
He continued, “I did it for Cameron, but we shouldn’t have gotten back together. After that first split, it was never the same between us ever again.”
Turner ultimately moved on with Jay Weiss, to whom she was married from 1984 to 2007. They share daughter Rachel, now 38. As for Douglas, he divorced Luker in 2000, later finding love with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and welcoming two children, Dylan and Carys, together.
One Helluva Ride hits bookstores Tuesday, October 6.
