Michael Douglas admits secret Kathleen Turner romance after 40 years of denials
Michael Douglas admits secret Kathleen Turner romance after 40 years of denials
Frankie Collins Fri, October 2, 2026 at 3:54 PM UTC
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Michael Douglas has admitted the sizzling chemistry between him and Kathleen Turner (Image: Getty)
Michael Douglas has admitted the sizzling chemistry between him and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone was not just movie magic. The pair were secretly lovers during filming, he says, despite spending more than four decades insisting nothing happened.
The Oscar winner, 82, makes the confession in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride. He and Kathleen, now 72, fell for each other while shooting the 1984 adventure in Mexico, when Michael was separated from his then-wife, Diandra Douglas, but still legally married to her.
The admission reaches back to a very different chapter of Michael's family life, decades before he married Catherine Zeta-Jones. The couple later had two children together, including daughter Carys. it comes as we take a look inside Michael's relationship to Catherine.
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In an earlier interview, Kathleen had acknowledged their mutual attraction while maintaining they never acted on it, leaving fans to believe the romance existed only on screen.
In an excerpt published by People, Michael recalls how he and Kathleen repeatedly told interviewers they had flirted but never crossed the line. His blunt verdict on that story: "That was a lie."
The Oscar winner, 82, makes the confession in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride. (Image: Getty)
He says they kept the relationship secret to protect Diandra and their son Cameron, who was five at the time.
Their marriage was already in trouble, according to Michael, but whether they were truly free to see other people would become crucial to what happened next.
Michael describes a romance that grew out of long days working together rather than a fleeting fling.
After dinners with the film crew, he says, he would slip into Kathleen's hotel room once everyone else had gone to bed. Even director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito were unaware, he claims.
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But the secret did not survive a family visit to the set. Michael shared that Diandra arrived in Mexico with Cameron and spoke to Kathleen alone, making clear that she and Michael were still married.
Kathleen did not want to come between them, and the relationship ended.
Michael describes a romance that grew out of long days working together rather than a fleeting fling. (Image: Getty)
Michael returned to Diandra, saying he was thinking of Cameron and remembering how badly his own parents' divorce had affected him.
Looking back, he believes reuniting with his wife was a mistake and says their relationship was never the same.
The former lovers did not disappear from each other's lives. They reunited for The Jewel of the Nile and The War of the Roses, then appeared together decades later in The Kominsky Method.
Their friendship endured despite the secret they continued to keep in interviews.
Michael says he asked Kathleen's permission before including their story.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
