Michael Douglas has finally admitted he and Kathleen Turner carried on a secret affair while filming “Romancing the Stone”, after denying the romance for more than 40 years.
In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir “One Helluva Ride,” the 82-year-old actor describes falling hard for his co-star during production of the 1984 adventure hit and keeping the relationship hidden for decades.
Fox News reported that People obtained the passage, which lands after years of public claims that the pair never acted on their on-screen heat.
Douglas writes that the attraction was immediate and mutual. He praises Turner’s intelligence, humor, and “deep, sultry voice,” and says both felt the pull while working under intense pressure.
“The truth is that during the production of Romancing the Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship,” he states in the memoir excerpt.
He insists it was not a casual fling. Close quarters, shared respect, and real chemistry drove it, he says, adding that he was “knocked sideways” by Turner like half the country at the time.
On camera, Douglas played rugged guide Jack Colton opposite Turner’s romance novelist Joan Wilder. Off camera, he writes, they worked to keep that spark alive in private.
According to the excerpt, the two grabbed dinners after shooting or he slipped into her hotel room once everyone else was asleep. No elevator cameras. No phones snapping pictures. Secrecy was easier then.
At home, Douglas says, his marriage to Diandra Luker was already in trouble. He describes leaving for the film still technically married but separated, and writes that both he and Luker were involved in extramarital affairs.
They had a young son, Cameron. Douglas says protecting Luker and the boy was a central reason the relationship with Turner stayed quiet, including from director Bob Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito.
The arrangement ended on set. Luker visited with Cameron and made clear to Turner that she and Douglas were still married. After that, Douglas and Turner chose to break it off.
“After that first split it was never the same between us ever again,” he writes of his marriage. Luker filed for divorce in 1995. It was finalized in 2000 after 23 years.
That same year, in November 2000, Douglas married Catherine Zeta-Jones. The couple later had two children, Dylan and Carys.
For more than 40 years, Douglas and Turner told the public they shared “amazing chemistry” and were tempted, but never crossed the line. They stuck to that story through the sequel and a later reunion on “The Kominsky Method.”
The memoir ends the denial. Turner’s response, given to People after the news spread, stayed light and warm.
In a statement, Turner said:
"Good heavens, what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael, and I look forward to enjoying the book."
She did not litigate old details. She did not pretend the past never happened. She treated a four-decade secret as yesterday’s news and wished her former co-star well.
Douglas now puts the private history in his own words for readers. The studio machine once sold the Jack-and-Joan romance as pure fiction. His account says the feelings ran both on and off the clock, then got buried to shield a strained marriage and a child.
Old Hollywood could keep a secret when it wanted to. Memoirs, it turns out, have a longer memory than press junkets.
