Michael Douglas is opening up about his life and career in his new memoir, including his relationship with co-star Kathleen Turner and his current wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones.
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Catherine Zeta-Jones Gave Michael Douglas an Ultimatum
As PEOPLE reports, the 82-year-old Douglas wrote in his book, One Helluva Ride, that Zeta-Jones wanted the couple to be exclusive.
"She told me she understood that I was a single guy who'd come out of a long marriage, but she would only be monogamous," he shared. "'I'm not interested in dating you if you're dating other people. You can either continue with them or end it and be with me.'"
Douglas shared that he needed to make some phone calls first.
"I told her, 'Wait here, I have to make five quick calls. 'Five? You have to make five calls?'" he shared.
At the time, Douglas had just separated from his first wife and was seeing five other women.
"They knew I was recently separated and in the process of getting a divorce," he said. "I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be non-monogamous."
Douglas Says His Relationship With Zeta-Jones Goes Beyond Attraction
Douglas also claims the five women didn't want anything serious.
"None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to. I am sure they were seeing other people, too," he wrote.
Douglas says that the women took the breakups well. But elsewhere in the book, the Basic Instinct actor said he was already amazed by Zeta-Jones. He had seen her in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro. Afterwards, he asked his publicist to arrange a meeting.
"She was smart, funny, unpretentious, and, yes, breathtakingly beautiful. She just seemed so confident and self-assured, too," he wrote.
Then, after a dinner date, a "smashed" Douglas walked Zeta-Jones to the hotel elevator and told her he was going to be the father of her children.
He wrote, "It wasn't a cheap pickup line. It was the truth."
Douglas and Zeta-Jones then married in 1999. They now have two children together. Douglas wrote that his relationship with the Entrapment actress has only grown deeper over time.
"It goes beyond being attracted to somebody in this matter," he wrote. "It's just an unknown bond of being close and... a mutual respect."
