Michael Douglas had five difficult calls to make when Catherine Zeta-Jones gave him a relationship ultimatum
When Catherine Zeta-Jones told Michael Douglas she wanted their relationship to be exclusive, there were several difficult conversations he had to have.
Douglas, 82, opened up about the early days of their relationship in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, and admitted he was also seeing five other women at that time.
When Catherine Zeta-Jones told Michael Douglas she wanted their relationship to be exclusive, he had five difficult calls to make. Getty
The Hollywood icon explained that when Zeta-Jones, 57, told him she wasn’t interested in being another woman on his rotation, and she wanted to be with him exclusively.
“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,” Douglas shared in an excerpt from the memoir.
“‘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 had a simple response, although he admitted he needed a minute to make some calls.
“I told her wait here I have to make five quick calls. ‘Five? You have to make five calls?’” he recalled.
Douglas had only recently become single, after separating from his first wife, Diandra Douglas (nee Luker) in 1995.
He started seeing other women, five to be exact, and for him the arrangement was pretty straightforward.
“Just after my marriage, I had been seeing five other women. They knew I was recently separated and in the process of getting a divorce,” he wrote.
“I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be non-monogamous.”
Douglas had been seeing five other women at the time and had to call them all to break it off to be with Zeta-Jones. Art Zelin/Getty
He claimed that none of the other women had asked to be exclusive, or even questioned if there were any other women.
Douglas said none of them had asked for any commitment, and thought they were probably seeing other men at the same time too.
But things changed when Zeta-Jones told him it was exclusive or nothing.
“That day, I called each one to say I met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them. They all took it well,” he wrote.
The couple went on to tie the knot in 2000, and have been together for 26 years. WireImage
The rest they say, is history and the couple have now been married for almost 26 years.
Douglas and Zeta-Jones went on to marry, tying the knot in 2000, after his divorce with Luker was finalised.
The couple went on to welcome two kids, Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23. Douglas also shares son Cameron, 47, with his ex-wife.
