Michael Douglas drops truth about his equation with Romacing The Stone co-star Kathleen Turner: ‘I was knocked sideways…'

Thought their chemistry was off the charts in Romancing The Stone and The Jewel Of The Nile? There was a reason why. There was a romance brewing offscreen, apparently. In a recent chat, actor Michael Douglas recently revealed that he and his co-star Kathleen Turner were once romantically involved. In his memoir One Helluva Ride, the actor stated that although both of them denied the rumours of an affair, they were once in love. Douglas said he had initially concealed the truth because he wanted to safeguard his wife and their son. He was married to Diandra Luker between 1977 and 2000, and the couple have a son, Cameron Douglas.

Looking back, Douglas revealed that his relationship with Kathleen Turner began while they were filming Romancing the Stone. He said their attraction developed into a genuine relationship rather than being a brief or casual encounter. According to him, their romance grew out of the intense circumstances surrounding the production, the amount of time they spent together, their mutual admiration and affection, and the strong attraction they felt toward each other. He also admitted that he was deeply captivated by Turner during that period.

Douglas further recalled that their relationship progressed smoothly as they moved from being friends and professional colleagues to becoming romantically involved. He described how their demanding days filming in the jungle were often followed by dinners, group outings and private moments together. Once everyone else had gone to sleep, Douglas would quietly make his way to Turner's hotel room.


He noted that the lack of modern technology and constant celebrity surveillance made it much easier for them to keep their relationship private. There were no cameras monitoring hotel elevators and no smartphones or social media, allowing assistants or strangers to capture and instantly share photographs.

While their characters, Jack and Joan, developed a romantic connection on screen, Douglas and Turner were privately nurturing their own relationship away from public attention. Douglas said they successfully kept the romance concealed from the people around them, including director Robert Zemeckis and fellow actor Danny DeVito, who were reportedly unaware of what was going on.

The affair fizzled out when Luker and Cameron came to visit Douglas while they were filming in Mexico.

Douglas is now married to actress Catherine Zeta Jones, and they have two kids – Dylan Douglas and Carys Zeta Douglas.

Kathleen Turner Responds To Affair Claims

In a chat with PEOPLE, Turner gently chided her former co-star for making a fuss about an old affair. “Good heavens, what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael, and I look forward to enjoying the book,” she said.

In the 1980s, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner acted together in three films. Their first project together was the 1984 adventure comedy Romancing the Stone, and then they made its 1985 sequel called The Jewel of the Nile. The two actors later came back together for the 1989 dark comedy The War of the Roses, which was a different story from the ones they had done before. Danny DeVito was in all three productions with them.

Some time later, Douglas and Turner collaborated once more on the TV show The Kominsky Method. Turner joined Douglas in the show's second and third seasons, which were broadcast in 2021.