For more than 40 years, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner insisted that the sparks in Romancing the Stone stayed on the screen. Now Douglas, 82, has admitted that was never true. In his memoir One Helluva Ride, which arrives October 6, he writes that the two fell for each other while shooting the 1984 adventure in Mexico. “That was a lie,” he says of the decades of denials, according to Fox News, which published excerpts.
Turner, 72, answered with the kind of line only she could deliver. “Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago!” she told People. “I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book.”
What Michael Douglas Wrote About Kathleen Turner
Douglas describes being drawn to his co-star almost immediately. “Kathleen was smart, funny, and sexy with a deep, sultry voice that became her signature,” he writes. “I instantly liked her, and we were immediately attracted to each other.” He says the romance “grew naturally from how closely we were working together, how much pressure we were under, how much we respected and cared for one another.”
Douglas was married to Diandra Luker at the time, and he writes that “things at home were in a bad place” and that both of them were seeing other people. Closer Weekly reported that the affair ended after Diandra visited the set with their young son Cameron, which made clear to Turner that the marriage was still real. Douglas and Diandra did not divorce until 2000, and he married Catherine Zeta-Jones later that year.
Why They Kept It Quiet For Four Decades
The two actors went on to make The Jewel of the Nile and The War of the Roses together, and they reunited on The Kominsky Method in 2018. Through all of it they waved off the rumors. Turner left the romance out of her own 2008 memoir, Send Yourself Roses, and Closer Weekly noted that both stars denied it again while promoting Kominsky.
What survived the secret is a friendship that has lasted longer than most Hollywood marriages. Douglas has spoken openly in recent years about his concern for Turner’s health as she manages rheumatoid arthritis, and her warm response to the book suggests nothing has changed between them. Jack Colton and Joan Wilder found each other in the jungle. It turns out the actors playing them did too.
