Michael Douglas is A-OK with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones skipping his new memoir.
The Oscar winner, 82, recently published his autobiography, One Helluva Ride, which contains details of his affairs with actresses Kathleen Turner and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Earlier this week, Zeta-Jones, 57, was quizzed on whether she planned to read the book during an appearance on the Today show and responded, “As much as I love my husband, when I’m tired at night, I have no intention of reading about him — at all.”
“Everyone else should. The book is called One Helluva Ride, and I think everyone should hold onto their cowboy hats because I think it is [a ride],” she added.
Douglas, for his part, shared on the Thursday, October 8, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he’s fine with Zeta-Jones’ decision, noting that their two-decade age gap may make for some uncomfortable reading for his wife.
Host Jimmy Kimmel asked Douglas if he felt Zeta-Jones not reading the book “was for the best,” to which he quipped, “Oh, yeah!”
“We got a 25-year age difference. I opened up and exposed the fact that Kathleen Turner and I had an affair when we were making Romancing the Stone,” Douglas explained. “I looked back and was like, alright, Catherine was seven years old at the time and wouldn’t know her husband for 25 years ahead.”
He continued, “I think she’s had to accept the fact that having this kind of age difference, you may have had a life before you ever [saw] her for the first time [in The Mask of] Zorro.”
In his memoir, Douglas recalled his affair with Turner, 72, while making Romancing the Stone. At the time, he was married to his first wife, Diandra Luker, though they were separated and “in a bad place.”
“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.
“I left for Mexico still technically married, but separated,” he continued. “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].”
For decades, the exes denied their romance — until now.
“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 wrote. “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.”
