Michael Douglas speaks openly about affairs, Princess Diana and Catherine Zeta‑Jones

Michael Douglas, now 82, uses his new memoir Hell of a Ride to finally lay out episodes from a personal life that has long provoked headlines: marriages, high-profile romances and on-set liaisons he says shaped his choices. Published this autumn, the book revisits his early struggles to escape the shadow of his famous parents, his passionate but turbulent relationships, and the moment he decided to change course after meeting Catherine Zeta-Jones.

From early losses to Hollywood affairs

Raised in a show-business family, Douglas recounts being pushed early into independence by his father, Kirk Douglas, who gave him money at age 20 and expected him to make his own way. He found early success on the casting circuit and entered a series of high-profile relationships, including a close engagement with Brenda Vaccaro that ended when Vaccaro fell for a co-star, Don Stroud — a breakup Douglas says shattered him.

Not long after, Douglas married Diandra Luker. The couple had a son, Cameron, but Douglas writes that the marriage was strained by competing lifestyles: Luker wanted a life centered in New York while Douglas remained focused on building a career in Hollywood. During those years he also describes brief, intense affairs tied to film projects, including a relationship with screenwriter Diane Thomas around the time of Romancing the Stone (1984), and a hidden romance with Kathleen Turner while the film was shooting.

Kathleen Turner, Douglas writes, gave permission to include the account in the memoir; Douglas quotes her reaction: "My God, what a fuss about events from forty years ago? I love Michael and I look forward to reading his book." He says their on-set liaison was kept private at the time to spare his family and avoid press uproar.

Douglas also revisits an unforgettable encounter with Princess Diana at a premiere where they sat side by side. Reflecting on that night in the book, he writes that their hands "would touch now and then on the shared armrest" and that for him those two hours felt like an intimate, suspended moment: "Millions of people would pay to see the princess up close or spend a minute with her, and I sat next to her for two hours." He says the memory stayed with him for decades and left him with a strong impression of how unhappy she seemed in her crumbling marriage to Prince Charles.

On-screen chemistry with co-stars also produced long-running rumours, notably around Basic Instinct and Sharon Stone. Douglas insists there was never an affair with Stone, though he acknowledges a relationship with Jeanne Tripplehorn, the actress who played Dr. Beth Garner in that film. Tripplehorn was about twenty years his junior and, Douglas writes, reluctant to be involved with a married man — but their discreet relationship continued away from publicity.

Everything changed after Douglas met Catherine Zeta-Jones at a festival premiere of The Mask of Zorro. He describes being struck by her performance and by the chemistry that followed, even though she was decades younger. Faced with her ultimatum — monogamy or no relationship — he called the five women he had been seeing and ended those entanglements. In 2000 he divorced Diandra Luker and married Zeta-Jones; the couple went on to have two children, Dylan and Carys, and Douglas writes that they have weathered difficulties and remain close after more than two decades together.

Photo: press material from the event