Things weren't fully smooth sailing between Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner after their on-set affair, it seems.
In his memoir One Helluva Ride, Michael, 82, revealed for the first time that during the making of 1984's Romancing the Stone, he had an affair with his co-star Kathleen, now 72, while still married to his first wife, Diandra Luker.
© Getty ImagesHowever, while Michael and Diandra's relationship continued to experience ups and downs, he experienced something similar with Kathleen when they were set to return for Romancing the Stone's sequel the following year after its success at the box office.
"I went back to Diandra. I had a kid, and we ended our film romance," Michael recalled over the weekend during a book talk at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre, which HELLO! attended.
20th Century Fox commissioned a sequel to the Robert Zemeckis hit, a contractual obligation for both Michael and Kathleen. The latter was originally more keen on appearing in The Money Pit instead, which eventually ended up starring Shelley Long opposite Tom Hanks.
However, as the Wall Street star explained, while he was open to returning given he was also a producer on the sequel, The Jewel of the Nile, Kathleen was resistant, especially because she found the script she was offered "terrible."
Michael explained that he and Fox threatened to sue the star for $25 million for breach of contract. "It became an issue," he continued. "She ended up hiring Roy Cohn to represent her to get out of the time that I wanted to do the picture."
© Getty ImagesMichael used his power as a producer to get Kathleen to eventually commit to the project, and even credited her with helping him with extensive rewrites to the script. "Ultimately, I won, but I thought, 'Now I've got to go do the sequel with this woman who hates my guts'," Michael quipped.
"God bless Kathleen. She ended up jumping in there and helping us with the script," Michael gushed. The Jewel of the Nile was also a box office success like its predecessor, however, unlike Romancing the Stone, which received an Academy Award nomination and took home two Golden Globes, it polarized critics and killed any chance for a franchise.
© Alamy Stock PhotoDespite the stand-off over the film, Michael and Kathleen remained friends, and even reunited with their Romancing the Stone co-star Danny DeVito to star in his second directorial venture, The War of the Roses, in 1989. They reunited once again three decades later for the show The Kominsky Method.
The actor wrote in his memoir of his feelings toward the star in the '80s: "Kathleen was smart, funny, and sexy with a deep, sultry voice that became her signature. I instantly liked her, and we were immediately attracted to each other."
© Getty ImagesSoon after the story of Michael and Kathleen's 40-year old affair went public, the Oscar-nominated star issued a statement of her own, which read: "Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book."
