Michael Douglas Says He and Kathleen Turner Kept an On-Set Affair Secret for 40 Years, and She Responds

Michael Douglas says he and Kathleen Turner began an affair while filming "Romancing the Stone" in 1984 and kept it secret for 40 years, a reversal of denials both had given since the movie opened. Turner's response was brief. "Good heavens, what a fuss about something 40 years ago!" she said in a statement to People. "I love Michael, and I look forward to enjoying the book."

The account is in Douglas's memoir, "One Helluva Ride," in an excerpt obtained by People. He is 82. "Kathleen was smart, funny, and sexy with a deep, sultry voice that became her signature," he wrote. "I instantly liked her, and we were immediately attracted to each other."

He was married at the time to Diandra Luker. "Things at home were in a bad place," he wrote, and both "were both having extramarital affairs." He left for the film "still technically married, but separated." Audiences, he wrote, were "certain for years that we were in a relationship together." He and Turner said they "had amazing chemistry" and were "both tempted," and that they had not acted on it. They kept that line through the sequel and through later work together on "The Kominsky Method."

"The truth is that during the production of Romancing the Stone, Kathleen and I fell hard for each other and began a relationship," he wrote. "It wasn't a fly-by night affair; it grew naturally from how closely we were working together, how much pressure we were under, how much we respected and cared for one another, and how attracted we were to each other. Like every other guy in the world at the time, I was knocked sideways by Kathleen."

He wrote that they hid it to protect Luker and their son, Cameron. The film's director, Robert Zemeckis, and co-star Danny DeVito were not told. After filming, he wrote, the two would go to dinner, or he "would sneak into her hotel room after everybody was asleep." "There were no cameras in elevators, no assistants using cell phones to take pictures," he wrote. "As Jack and Joan were falling in love, Kathleen and I were keeping the chemistry alive."

The affair ended, he wrote, after Luker visited the set with Cameron "and made it clear to her [Turner] that we were still married." Luker filed for divorce in 1995. After 23 years of marriage, the divorce was finalized in 2000. "After that first split it was never the same between us ever again," Douglas wrote. He married Catherine Zeta-Jones in November 2000. They have two children, Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23.

"Romancing the Stone" cast Turner as Joan Wilder, a romance novelist who goes to Colombia to rescue her sister, and Douglas as Jack Colton, a bird hunter who agrees to help. The film's selling point was the pairing. Douglas now says the pairing off-camera was real, and that the public version was a lie maintained for four decades.

Turner's statement does not confirm the details and does not dispute them. She called the attention a fuss, said she loves him, and said she looks forward to the book. She did not describe the relationship, the end of it, or the decision to deny it. The only extended account is his.

A memoir published 40 years later is one person's record. Douglas says the secret was for his wife and son. He also says the marriage was already broken and that both spouses were having affairs. Those claims are his. Luker has not been quoted in the accounts of the excerpt. Zemeckis and DeVito have not been quoted on whether they knew.

What changed this week is the denial. For 40 years the story was chemistry and restraint. Douglas now says they fell hard, hid it on the set, and stopped when his wife arrived with their son. Turner's reply was that she loves him and intends to read the book. The fuss, she said, is about something that happened 40 years ago.