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Michael Douglas Finally Confesses: He and Kathleen Turner Were Secret Lovers for 40 Years
In a new memoir hitting shelves this week, the Hollywood legend admits he and his "Romancing the Stone" costar carried on a hidden romance during the 1984 shoot in Mexico — and lied about it publicly for four decades to protect his then-wife and young son.
Michael Douglas is finally setting the record straight on one of Hollywood's longest-running open secrets. In excerpts from his new memoir, "One Helluva Ride," out October 6 from Grand Central Publishing, the 81-year-old actor admits he and Kathleen Turner had a real, physical romance while filming 1984's "Romancing the Stone" — not just the on-screen chemistry fans assumed, according to TMZ.
Douglas writes that he and Turner "fell hard for each other" on location in Mexico, sneaking into her hotel room after wrap each night and hiding the affair from director Robert Zemeckis and costar Danny DeVito, per People's exclusive excerpt. At the time, Douglas was separated from, but still legally married to, his first wife Diandra Luker.
Why they lied for 40 years
According to the memoir, the relationship ended when Diandra flew to the set with the couple's young son, Cameron, then 5, and grew suspicious. She confronted Turner privately, making clear she still considered herself Douglas's wife — and Turner, unwilling to wreck someone else's marriage, called it off, Douglas writes, as detailed in coverage from Entertainment Weekly.
"It was a lie meant to protect my wife and son, a lie we told the world for 40 years," Douglas reportedly writes in the book.
Douglas and Diandra reconciled for the sake of their son — a reunion he now admits was a mistake — before the two ultimately divorced in 1995. Douglas went on to marry Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2000. Turner, meanwhile, has spent decades publicly describing the connection as nothing more than "sexual tension," even while the pair reunited for "Jewel of the Nile," "The War of the Roses" and, much later, Netflix's "The Kominsky Method," according to Us Weekly.
Perhaps most notably, Douglas says he sought Turner's blessing before going public with the story in his own book — a sign the two have long since repaired their friendship, even if the romance itself never had a second act. No independent comment from Turner has surfaced yet confirming Douglas's account of events.
The revelation adds a strikingly candid chapter to a memoir already billed as unusually frank, with Douglas reportedly also addressing his past struggles with addiction and his son Cameron's drug-related legal troubles. "One Helluva Ride" lands in stores October 6.