Hollywood star Michael Douglas has revealed that his on-screen chemistry with Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone was more than acting, admitting the pair secretly became lovers during the film’s production.
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After four decades of denying reports of a relationship, Douglas has opened up about the romance in his forthcoming memoir, One Hell of a Ride, due to be released on Oct. 6.
Douglas, now 82, wrote that he and Turner, 72, were immediately attracted to each other when they met before filming the 1984 adventure film.
According to an excerpt from the memoir, their relationship developed gradually as they spent long hours working together in Mexico.
“The truth is that during the production of Romancing the Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship,” Douglas wrote, describing it as something that grew from their close working relationship, mutual respect and attraction.
He recalled that their connection moved from friendship to romance while filming in the jungle.
“We found each other first as friends, then as co-stars, and finally as lovers,” Douglas wrote.
He also described how they kept the relationship hidden from the rest of the cast and crew.
“Following an exhausting day of shooting in the jungle, we’d go out and have a meal, or head out with the group and afterward I would sneak into her hotel room after everybody was asleep,” he wrote.
Douglas said the affair was kept secret from director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito. At the time, he was separated from his first wife, Diandra Luker, but they were still legally married.
The romance eventually ended after Luker visited the Mexican film set with the couple’s young son, Cameron, and became suspicious about Douglas and Turner.
Douglas told Luker that Turner reminded her that she and Douglas were still married. Turner subsequently decided not to interfere in their marriage, and the relationship ended. Douglas later returned to Luker, although he now describes that decision as a mistake.
For decades, Douglas and Turner maintained a public version that there had been strong chemistry and flirting between them but no actual affair.
Douglas now says that story was false and that the pair maintained it to protect his wife and son.
The revelations come more than 40 years after Romancing the Stone brought Douglas and Turner together on screen. The pair later reunited for The Jewel of the Nile and The War of the Roses, while maintaining a professional relationship.
