LOS ANGELES, United States — Michael Douglas has revealed that he and Kathleen Turner had a secret romantic relationship while filming the 1984 hit Romancing the Stone.
Douglas, 82, makes the disclosure in his forthcoming memoir, One Helluva Ride, which is scheduled for publication on October 6.
This confession ends four decades of public denials that their celebrated on-screen chemistry had become a real-life affair.
The actor said he and Turner, now 72, became romantically involved while shooting the film in Mexico.
At the time, Douglas was separated from his then-wife, Diandra Douglas, although the couple remained legally married.
In an excerpt from the memoir published by People on Friday, October 2, 2026, Douglas acknowledged that the account he and Turner had maintained publicly for years was untrue.
“That was a lie,” Douglas wrote.
He said the pair had concealed the relationship to protect his wife and their son, Cameron.
Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are pictured while filming ‘Romancing the Stone’ which grossed approximately $115 million worldwide. | Alamy Stock Image
Romance Began During Filming in Mexico
Douglas was both a producer and star of Romancing the Stone, playing adventurer Jack Colton opposite Turner’s romance novelist, Joan Wilder.
The film follows Wilder as she travels to Colombia in an attempt to rescue her kidnapped sister and becomes involved with Colton.
Douglas said he and Turner were immediately attracted to each other when they met before production.
Their relationship developed as they spent long days working together in Mexico, he wrote, eventually progressing from friendship and professional collaboration into a romance.
Douglas said they kept the relationship hidden from others working on the movie, including director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito.
For decades, Douglas and Turner acknowledged a strong attraction between them but maintained they never acted on it.
Turner had previously spoken publicly about having feelings for Douglas.
During an appearance on ITV’s Loose Women, she said Douglas was separated at the time and that she had been romantically interested in him, but recalled changing course after his wife appeared during filming.
Visit From Douglas’s Wife Changed Relationship
Douglas writes that the relationship ended after Diandra arrived in Mexico with their young son, Cameron.
According to his account, Diandra became suspicious about his relationship with Turner and made clear to Turner that she and Douglas remained married.
Turner subsequently withdrew from the relationship because she did not want to interfere with the marriage.
Douglas said he also decided to reconcile with Diandra because he was concerned about the effect a separation would have on Cameron, who was then five.
Douglas and Diandra later separated permanently in 1995. Their divorce was finalised in 2000.
Douglas married actress Catherine Zeta-Jones later that year. They have two children together, Dylan and Carys.
Actors Continued Working Together
Whatever personal complications followed Romancing the Stone, Douglas and Turner continued their professional relationship.
The 1984 film became a commercial success, prompting 20th Century Fox to pursue a sequel.
Turner initially resisted returning for The Jewel of the Nile, leading the studio to file a $25 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against her. The dispute was eventually resolved, and Turner returned for the 1985 sequel.
Douglas and Turner worked together again in the 1989 dark comedy The War of the Roses, in which they played a married couple locked in an increasingly destructive divorce.
More than three decades later, they reunited on the Netflix series The Kominsky Method in 2021.
The actors have remained friends.
Douglas said he sought Turner’s permission before including details of their relationship in his memoir.
The revelation confirms a relationship that the two stars had publicly characterised for decades as intense attraction that never became an affair.
