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Michael Douglas dumped five women when he made things official with his now-wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, nearly 30 years ago.
The “Fatal Attraction” star writes in his new memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” that after months of courtship, Zeta-Jones told Douglas that while she understood he was coming out of his long marriage to his first wife, Diandra Luker, she said she’d only date him if they were monogamous together.
“I’m not interested in dating you if you’re dating other people,” Zeta-Jones told Douglas before asking him to choose whether to be monogamous with her.
Douglas writes he told Zeta-Jones, “Wait here I have to make five quick calls.”
“Five? You have to make five calls?!” the “Entrapment” actress responded.
Douglas explains in his book that following his separation from Luker in 1995 after 23 years of marriage, he began non-monogamous relationships with five women who all lived in different cities.
“That day, I called each one to say I’d met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them,” he writes. “They all took it well.”
Douglas, 82, and Zeta-Jones, 57, began dating in 1998 after meeting at Deaville American Film Festival.
While the pair were having a drink together the night they met, Douglas, as he recalls in his books, famously told Zeta-Jones, “I’m going to be the father of your children.”
That turned Zeta-Jones off, and she walked out on the pair’s date.
Douglas defends the comment in his book, insisting it “wasn’t a cheap pickup line,” but rather “it was the truth.”
“Because even though I had only gotten to know her in one evening… there was something completely different about her,” the Oscar winner says. “Different from any other woman I had ever met.”
“She was magic, in a way that went beyond beauty,” Douglas adds of his wife. “I was certain, as much as I had ever been about anything, that she was the one.”
Douglas says he changed Zeta-Jones’ mind about him by sending her a bouquet with an apology note.
Two years later, they tied the knot at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
The couple now share two children, son Dylan, 26, and daughter Carys, 23, who are both actors. Douglas is also dad to son Cameron, 47, from his first marriage.
Elsewhere in his memoir, Douglas writes about his and Zeta-Jones’ brief 2013 separation, which came after his tongue cancer battle and her bipolar disorder treatment.
“From the second we separated, I never gave up hope that we would reconcile,” Douglas says. “I love Catherine in a way that I have never loved any other woman.”
He adds, “She’s my wife, my best friend, and my life partner. I could never lose her.”
The couple, who share the same birthday, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last November, with Zeta-Jones penning a sweet tribute to her husband on Instagram.
“25 years ago today, I walked down the aisle,” she wrote, recalling Douglas “waiting for me, looking at me the way only you can.”
“I love you today as I did then,” Zeta-Jones added. “Thank you sweetheart.”
“One Helluva Ride” is out now.
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By Page Six | Created at 2026-10-06 12:32:16 | Updated at 2026-10-06 14:39:07
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