By Samuel Olusegun Precious
Catherine Zeta-Jones issued a blunt ultimatum to Michael Douglas when they first started dating – go monogamous or forget it.The revelation is in Douglas’s new memoir One Helluva Ride, released this week.
The 82-year-old Hollywood legend writes that after his separation from first wife Diandra Douglas in 1995, he was dating five other women in different cities, which he felt was “a respectful way to be non-monogamous.
He said the initial approach did not end well as he approached her after being heavily drunk and shouted: “You’ll be the mother of my children!”, which she promptly rejected. He also sent flowers to her home in Scotland to make up for the initial gaffe.
“That changed after meeting Zeta-Jones at the Deauville American Film Festival in France in 1998 after he had seen her in The Mask of Zorro.
Zeta-Jones, now 57, told him:”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. 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 said his response was: “Wait here, I have to make five quick calls.”Zeta-Jones replied: “Five? You have to make five calls?!”
Douglas says he called each woman that day to end things: “They all took it well. None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to. I’m sure they were seeing other people too.”
The couple married in November 2000 and share two children, Dylan, 26 and Carys, 23.In the memoir Douglas also addresses their brief split in 2013 when Zeta-Jones sought treatment for bipolar disorder, calling it “a little bump in the road,” and says work has kept their 25-year marriage strong.
