Michael Douglas confirms Kathleen Turner romance after 40 years of denials

Michael Douglas writes in a new memoir that he and Kathleen Turner were lovers during the filming of Romancing the Stone in Mexico, overturning denials the two actors gave for 40 years. The admission appears in One Helluva Ride, which goes on sale October 6, in an excerpt that People published on October 2.

Douglas, 82, and Turner, 72, held to one public explanation for decades: strong chemistry, two willing flirts, nothing more. The memoir says they denied a romance through Romancing the Stone, its 1985 sequel The Jewel of the Nile, 1989's The War of the Roses, and again while promoting The Kominsky Method a few years ago.

Inside the Mexico shoot

Romancing the Stone cast Turner as the romance novelist Joan Wilder, who travels to Colombia to rescue her kidnapped sister with the help of the adventurer Jack Colton, played by Douglas, who also produced the picture. He had wanted Debra Winger for the part, and when that did not work out he met Turner over lunch to discuss it. "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."

Douglas was still legally married to Diandra Douglas when he left for the shoot, and the couple had a young son, Cameron. "Things at home were in a bad place," he writes. "Diandra and I were both having extramarital affairs, including my recent romance with Diane Thomas [Romancing the Stone's screenwriter]... I left for Mexico still technically married, but separated."

The relationship began during production. "The truth is that during the production of Romancing the Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship," Douglas writes. He describes it as something that grew out of how closely they worked, the pressure they were under and the respect between them, rather than a brief fling, and says he was "knocked sideways" by Turner, like every other man in the world at the time.

Secrecy was deliberate. After days of shooting in the jungle, Douglas writes, the group would go out for a meal, and he would slip into Turner's hotel room once everyone had gone to sleep. "There were no cameras in elevators, no assistants using cell phones to take pictures," he writes. Director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito, by his account, never knew.

The lie told for 40 years

The cover story was specific, and both actors stuck to it. Douglas writes that the official version conceded the chemistry, conceded that they were, in Turner's phrase, "terrible flirts," and conceded that they were tempted, while insisting that nothing ever happened between them. Audiences never bought it. The chemistry was so strong, he writes, that viewers have been certain for years that the two were involved while making the film.

That was a lie. It was a lie meant to protect my wife and son, a lie we told the world for 40 years.

The reason he gives for the denials is his family. The story was meant to protect Diandra and Cameron, Douglas writes, and once the two actors settled on it they repeated it through press tours that stretched across four productions and most of four decades. He says audiences had the better instinct the whole time.

"Kathleen and I never hit a rough spot," Douglas writes. "We found each other first as friends, then as co-stars, and finally as lovers."

Douglas, a two-time Oscar winner, was both the leading man and a producer on Romancing the Stone, which became a hit and returned a sequel the following year. The pairing of Jack Colton and Joan Wilder is among the best known of the decade, and the question of whether it carried past the set followed both actors into every interview about the film.

What ended the relationship

The romance ended when Diandra traveled to Mexico with their young son, Cameron. Douglas writes that he was glad to have his son on location, and that the arrival broke what he calls the magic spell of the set. "Diandra grew suspicious," he writes. "A woman's intuition, I suppose."

Diandra spoke with Turner alone and made clear that she and Douglas were still married. "Her view of the terms of our separation was different from mine," Douglas writes. "This gave Kathleen pause. She didn't want to interfere." Turner stepped back.

"After that visit, Kathleen and I ended things, and I went back to Diandra," Douglas writes. "I did it for Cameron, but we shouldn't have gotten back together. After that first split, it was never the same between us ever again." He says the pull of his son and his own memory of his parents' divorce when he was a child weighed heavily on the decision to go home.

The marriage held together for years after Mexico. By Douglas's own account it never recovered from that first break, and the reconciliation he describes is one he came to regret.

Life after the reconciliation

Douglas and Diandra separated in 1995, and their divorce was finalized in 2000 with a settlement reported at $45 million. Douglas married Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2000 and has two children with her. Turner married the real estate developer Jay Weiss in 1984, according to Hola, and the two divorced in 2007. Diandra, a producer, married William Legge, the stepbrother of Princess Diana, in 2025, Extra reported.

Douglas reverses four decades of denials

Douglas's memoir, One Helluva Ride, goes on sale October 6, and People published an excerpt on October 2 in which he describes a romantic relationship with Turner during the Mexico shoot for Romancing the Stone. Douglas is 82 and Turner is 72. Both had spent four decades telling interviewers that the chemistry was real and that nothing ever came of it.

• Douglas says the relationship began during production in Mexico.
• He was separated from Diandra Douglas but still legally married.
• Robert Zemeckis and Danny DeVito did not know, Douglas writes.
• It ended after Diandra visited the set with their son Cameron.

Douglas writes that he asked Turner for permission before putting the relationship in the book, and the two have remained friends in the decades since, working together more than once after the Mexico shoot ended.

The working relationship outlasted the romance. Douglas and Turner reunited for The Jewel of the Nile in 1985 and The War of the Roses in 1989, then again decades later on The Kominsky Method, and at each stop they were asked about the chemistry and gave the same answer.

Turner's public account over the years

Turner's own public account has never gone that far. In a 2021 People interview she described the pull between them and pointed to his marriage as the reason nothing came of it. "Oh I was yearning, babe, but he was still married...," she said. "It was that wonderful sexual tension, you know?"

On ITV's Loose Women in 2018, Turner said she had been "feeling rather romantic towards Michael" while making the film, and that she had understood he was separated and she was single. She set the limit in the same breath. "You don't mess with other women's marriages," she said.

Turner returned to the subject in a 2023 interview with The Guardian. "I think we might have been falling in love," she said. "But then Diandra flew down and made it clear that she did not consider Michael to be available. So that ended that because I can't get involved with another woman's relationship. But oh my, that attention is delicious!" Asked how close she had come to dating Douglas, she replied: "None of your business."

The question that trailed the pair since Romancing the Stone now has an answer from one of them. Douglas says the account he and Turner gave reporters at four productions was false, and that it was told to protect his wife and son. He writes that they kept it for 40 years. No comment from Turner or Diandra Douglas appears in the published accounts of the excerpt. One Helluva Ride goes on sale October 6.