Michael Douglas is a proud father of three, but parenting hasn't always been easy. The Fatal Attraction star, 81, is dad to Cameron, 46, whom he shares with ex-wife Diandra Luker, as well as Dylan, 25, and Carys, 22, with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, and now he is a grandfather as Cameron is a dad to Lua, seven, and Ryder, four. Joining Cameron on stage for an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show in September 2025, Hollywood icon Michael revealed what his two grandchildren call him – and it's so sweet.
"They always say 'Bubba'," Michael told Drew, adding: "I couldn't be more excited and happy and enjoying it, watching Cameron go through being a father and smiling and having a good time." Though Michael clearly shares a close bond with Lua and Ryder, he was candid about the distance he has from them, with their homes being on opposite sides of the country. Michael and Catherine own a penthouse suite overlooking Central Park West, while Cameron resides in California.
"I don't see them enough. They are on the West Coast, I'm on the East Coast. I hope to see them more often," he admitted. The key to Michael's relationship with Lua and Ryder is his closeness to their father. Opening up about the relationship he shares with Cameron, the husband of Wednesday actress Catherine said: "In the spirit of maintaining a good relationship as you're growing on up, there's only so much parenting you can do after a certain age, and then you're either fortunate enough that you have a bond together, or you don't. Both of us cherish the idea of working on keeping a bond together, which you have to do. You can't take it for granted."
Michael's 'rough' mistaken identity with children
Though Michael's younger children don't have children of their own, they did share a comedic mishap when they were students at Brown University after he was mistaken for their grandfather. "This is not grandfather's day, this is parents' day. I say 'I am a parent!'," he said, recalling the interaction to The Telegraph. "That was a rough one."
Juggling work and parenting
Michael has admitted that being an older father to Dylan and Carys (he was 56 and 59, respectively, when they were born) has made him a better father; he has previously confessed to missing some of Cameron's childhood due to being "overloaded" by Hollywood projects.
"Cameron suffered a lot from that time... I was just overwhelmed and overloaded by my work. And family was really taking third place after work, our country, and then the family, as opposed to when Catherine and I got together," he told the newspaper.