Michael Douglas dumped five women for Zeta-Jones, memoir says

Michael Douglas had five women to call before he could commit to Catherine Zeta-Jones. Page Six reports that in his new memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” Douglas writes that Zeta-Jones told him she would only date him if they were monogamous. He responded that he needed to make “five quick calls.” Five calls to five different women in five different cities, all of whom he had been seeing non-monogamously after separating from his first wife, Diandra Luker, in 1995.

“That day, I called each one to say I’d met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them,” Douglas writes. “They all took it well.”

The couple met in 1998 at the Deauville American Film Festival. Douglas’s opening line, as he recalls in the book, was: “I’m going to be the father of your children.” Zeta-Jones walked out. Douglas defends the comment as “the truth,” not a pickup line. He sent a bouquet with an apology note to win her back.

Two years later, they married at the Plaza Hotel in New York. They have two children together—Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23—both actors. Douglas also has a son, Cameron, 47, from his first marriage.

The memoir also covers their brief separation in 2013, which came after his tongue cancer battle and her treatment for bipolar disorder. Douglas writes that he never gave up hope of reconciliation. “I love Catherine in a way that I have never loved any other woman,” he says.

The couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last November. Zeta-Jones posted on Instagram: “25 years ago today, I walked down the aisle… I love you today as I did then.”

“One Helluva Ride” is out now.

“I’m going to be the father of your children.” — Michael Douglas, to Catherine Zeta-Jones on their first date, as recalled in his memoir

• Catherine Zeta-Jones
• marriage
• memoir
• Michael Douglas
• monogamy
• One Helluva Ride