Michael Douglas has confirmed a secret affair with Kathleen Turner during the making of Romancing the Stone, a romance the pair denied for more than 40 years while their on-screen chemistry lit up theaters.
The 82-year-old actor details the relationship in an excerpt from his upcoming memoir "One Helluva Ride," obtained by People and reported by Fox News. Douglas and Turner starred together in the 1984 adventure hit, with Douglas as Jack Colton and Turner as Joan Wilder.
For decades the two told the public they felt temptation and shared "amazing chemistry" but never acted on it. Douglas now says that line was false.
In the memoir he writes that the attraction hit right away.
Douglas described Turner as smart, funny, and sexy, with the deep, sultry voice that became her signature. He said he instantly liked her and the two were immediately drawn to each other.
Douglas left for the film still technically married to Diandra Luker but separated. He wrote that things at home were in a bad place and that both he and Luker were having extramarital affairs at the time.
The relationship with Turner, he said, grew naturally from the close work, the pressure, the mutual respect, and the attraction. "Like every other guy in the world at the time, I was knocked sideways by Kathleen," Douglas wrote.
He described sneaking into her hotel room after everyone else was asleep. There were no elevator cameras and no phones for assistants to snap photos, he noted. As their characters fell in love on screen, the two kept the real chemistry going off camera.
They hid it from director Bob Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito. Douglas said they kept the secret for more than 40 years to protect Luker and their young son, Cameron.
The affair stopped after Luker visited the set with Cameron and made clear to Turner that she and Douglas were still married. "After that first split it was never the same between us ever again," Douglas wrote of his marriage.
Luker filed for divorce in 1995. The split became final in 2000 after 23 years of marriage. That November, Douglas married Catherine Zeta-Jones. The couple later welcomed son Dylan, now 26, and daughter Carys, now 23.
Douglas and Turner continued denying any real-life romance through the sequel and even during their later reunion on the series The Kominsky Method. The public story held until the memoir excerpt surfaced.
Turner answered the sudden attention with a brief statement to People. "Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book."
Hollywood has long sold movie magic while guarding private behavior that rarely matches the script. Douglas chose to put the real record in his own words after four decades of careful silence. Marriage vows and family fallout still matter more than any box-office spark, no matter how charming the stars.
