Michael Douglas has pushed back at the idea that he had to win Catherine Zeta-Jones back after the couple’s 2013 separation, insisting the time apart was “a mutual” decision.
The 82-year-old was asked by The Sunday Times, in an interview to promote his memoir One Helluva Ride reported by the Daily Mail, how he “won back” the Swansea-born star after they split 13 years into their marriage.
“What, I won her back? It was a mutual,” he replied. “You know, we had our problems but I love her dearly and, 25 years, you know.”
“I mean, I don’t know about your marital status, but marriage is a lot of work, you know. And so, you know, we’re good. We’re in good shape. It’s all I can say.”
In the book, which goes on sale in the UK today, he writes of the separation: “I never gave up hope that we would reconcile.”
“She was magic”: the excerpt he posted for her birthday
The couple share a birthday, 25 September, 25 years apart. Douglas marked this year’s with an excerpt from the memoir about seeing Zeta-Jones on screen before they met.
“I had never fallen in love on a movie screen before. Until I saw Catherine. She was magic, in a way that went beyond beauty,” he wrote. “And I was certain, as much as I had ever been about anything, that she was the one.”
“It’s the kind of moment that only comes around once in your life, if you’re lucky. The one time that you know, without any doubt in your mind, that you’re meant to be with someone. Happy Birthday Catherine! I love you always and forever!”
She replied: “Thank you darling. Thank you. Happy Birthday to you too my love.”
A “bump in the road” after two years of illness
The couple met at the Deauville Film Festival in 1998 and married at New York’s Plaza Hotel in November 2000. In 2013 they said they were “taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage”.
It followed a bruising few years. Douglas was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and Zeta-Jones spoke publicly in 2011 about being treated for bipolar II disorder, returning to a clinic for further treatment in 2013.
The same year Douglas told The Guardian his cancer had been caused by HPV, a virus passed on through oral sex, remarks he later said he regretted for the embarrassment they caused his wife.
“We had a little bump in the road,” he told Event magazine in 2015. “The problem in this business is that everything is so public. I love Catherine as much, more than I ever have. And hopefully the feeling’s mutual.”
“We worked things out. If both people want to work something out and make it better, you can do it. You can’t do it if it’s just one person.”
Zeta-Jones: “Do that job, that’s amazing”
Zeta-Jones, 57, gave her own account of what has kept the marriage going when she spoke to The Sunday Times last month, in the interview in which she called the “nepo baby” label attached to their children Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23, “horrific”.
The secret, she said, was that she kept working rather than staying at home. “Michael is, like, ‘Do that job, that’s amazing.’ Then he’s able to fly in and see me. Much better than waking up, going, ‘What do you want for breakfast, honey?’ I don’t think our marriage would ever have lasted if it was like that.”
The couple marked 25 years of marriage last November, when she posted “I love you today as I did then” and he wrote, to “my darling Catherine”: “Who knew?” Douglas has been a regular visitor to Wales with his wife, and was at the Brangwyn Hall in 2019 when she was given the Freedom of the City.
Last month she told Heart Breakfast she had turned down Ryan Reynolds “many times” over Welcome to Wrexham because “Swansea City is my team”.
Douglas stepped back from acting in 2022 after nearly 60 years, and was last seen as Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s Franklin. His wife has kept doing the job, as Morticia in Netflix’s Wednesday and now as Jackie Price in Kill Jackie, the Prime Video thriller partly filmed in Swansea in which she uses her Welsh accent on screen for the first time.
“Jackie is just getting started,” she posted from the set last month.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Swansea’s Catherine Zeta-Jones celebrates 25 years of marriage to Michael Douglas – “I love you today as I did then.”
SWANSEA: Catherine Zeta-Jones blasts ‘horrific’ nepo baby label as children follow famous parents – Dylan, Carys and the Sunday Times interview.
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES: ‘I can’t go to Wrexham’: Swansea’s Hollywood star turned down Ryan Reynolds ‘many times’ – “Swansea City is my team.”
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