Michael Douglas had to end five other relationships after Catherine Zeta-Jones made a monogamy ruling
Hollywood star Michael Douglas has revealed he had to dish out a bit of disappointment when Catherine Zeta-Jones gave him an ultimatum early in their relationship.
The 82-year-old actor has been in a relationship with Welsh-born Zeta-Jones since 1998.
The pair got engaged the following year and married in New York in 2000.
In his new memoir One Helluva Ride, Douglas has opened up about the early days of his relationship with the stunning star and revealed that once things got serious she made it clear that she wasn’t keen on the idea of sharing him.
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He wrote: “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 recalled that she told him: ‘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, who was newly divorced from his first wife Diandra at the time, was happy to agree to her conditions but he had to do something first, well he had to do five things first.
“I told her wait here I have to make five quick calls. ‘Five? You have to make five calls?’” he recalled.
“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
“I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be non-monogamous.”
The Wall Street actor said that none of the other ladies he had been seeing had wanted anything serious or questioned whether he was meeting other women, adding: “I am sure they were seeing other people, too.”
So, when the time came to break the news that he’d no longer be seeing them as he’d met someone else, they ‘all took it well’.
Douglas also revealed the rather cheesy but 100% accurate line he used on Zeta-Jones shortly after they first met.
The smitten-star admitted that after having dinner with Zeta-Jones and her Zorro co-star Anthonio Banderas and his then-wife Melanie Griffith, he got ‘smashed’ on booze and as he was getting ready to say goodbye, he told her: I’m going to be the father of your children.”
Douglas wrote: “It wasn’t a cheap pickup line. It was the truth.”
It sure was, as the pair are now mum and dad two kids: son Dylan, aged 26, and a daughter named Carys, who is 23.
With more than a quarter of a century together, Douglas recently told PEOPLE that their love is stronger than ever.
“It goes beyond being attracted to somebody in this matter. It’s just an unknown bond of being close and… a mutual respect,” he said.
Sharing the secrets to their longevity, he added: "A good sense of humour doesn't hurt, number one.
“And talking things out. Never using the words 'never' or 'always' when you get angry with each other.
"And putting yourself in the other person's position before you make your value judgment. But you gotta have fun.”
Topics: Celebrity, Michael Douglas, Sex and Relationships
Claire Reid