Michael Douglas reveals 40-year secret affair with Kathleen Turner

Highlights

• Michael Douglas has confirmed in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, that he and Kathleen Turner had a real romance during the filming of Romancing the Stone in 1983
• Both actors publicly denied any relationship for 40 years, including as recently as press for The Kominsky Method
• The affair reportedly ended after Douglas's then-wife, Diandra, confronted Turner during a visit to the film's Mexico set
• Turner has since confirmed the account herself, telling People the decades of denial were simply "a lie"

For 40 years, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner stuck to the same story about the sparks between them on screen: real chemistry, no romance. In his new memoir, Douglas has finally admitted that wasn't true.

What the memoir says

In One Helluva Ride, out October 6, Douglas writes that he and Turner "fell hard for each other" during production of 1984's Romancing the Stone, shot largely on location in Mexico. He acknowledges the two of them maintained a consistent public line for decades afterward — through Romancing the Stone, its sequel The Jewel of the Nile, their later film The War of the Roses, and even press interviews for their more recent series The Kominsky Method — insisting nothing had happened beyond flirtation. Turner herself has now confirmed the truth directly, telling People simply: "That was a lie."

How it started, and how it ended

According to Douglas's account, the relationship moved quickly from friendship into something more during filming, and he describes sneaking to Turner's hotel room after hours, keeping it hidden even from co-star Danny DeVito and director Robert Zemeckis. It came to an end, he writes, after his then-wife Diandra visited the Mexico set with their young son, Cameron, and confronted Turner directly about the nature of her relationship with Douglas. Turner, by Douglas's account, chose not to come between the marriage, and the two stars parted ways romantically — though they'd go on to make two more films together regardless.

michael douglas and kathleen turner michael douglas and kathleen turner

The role Turner almost didn't get

There's a telling footnote to how Turner ended up opposite Douglas at all. He has separately said that Debra Winger was the studio's original pick for the role of Joan Wilder, before a dinner meeting between the pair went badly wrong — Douglas claims Winger bit him on the arm hard enough to draw blood, and he refused to proceed with her in the role. Turner was brought in instead, and Romancing the Stone went on to earn more than $115 million worldwide, launching a partnership that would define both their careers through the rest of the decade.

Where they both ended up

Douglas and Diandra divorced years later; he married Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2000, and they remain together. Turner, now 72 to Douglas's 82, built an acclaimed career of her own beyond the Douglas films, including her Golden Globe-winning performance in The Jewel of the Nile and a long stage career that included a Tony-nominated run in Broadway's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Neither has suggested the revelation changes how they view each other now — if anything, both have framed it as simply, finally, telling the truth about a chemistry audiences always suspected was real.