Michael Douglas has revealed that his famous chemistry with Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone extended well beyond the cameras.
In his upcoming memoir, One Helluva Ride, the 82-year-old actor says he and Turner became lovers while making the 1984 adventure comedy in Mexico. Douglas was separated from his first wife, Diandra Douglas, at the time but remained legally married.
The two actors spent decades acknowledging their attraction while insisting they had never acted on it. “That was a lie,” Douglas writes in an excerpt published by PEOPLE.
Turner has now responded to the disclosure without expressing regret over Douglas making it public. “Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago!” she told PEOPLE. “I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book.”
Douglas Says He Would Slip Into Turner’s Hotel Room After Filming
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Douglas first met Turner over lunch while casting the role of romance novelist Joan Wilder. He was producing Romancing the Stone as well as starring as adventurer Jack Colton, and Turner eventually landed the part after an earlier plan involving Debra Winger did not work out.
Douglas writes that he and Turner were attracted to each other immediately. Once filming moved to Mexico, their friendship and working relationship became romantic.
After long days shooting in the jungle, the cast and crew would sometimes eat or go out together. Douglas says he would later wait until everyone had gone to sleep before slipping into Turner’s hotel room.
The relationship remained hidden even from people working closely beside them. Douglas says director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito did not know what was happening between the movie’s two leads.
Diandra’s Visit to Mexico Brought the Romance to an End
Douglas says the situation changed when Diandra traveled to Mexico with their young son, Cameron.
According to his account, Diandra became suspicious and eventually spoke privately with Turner. Douglas writes that his wife made clear that she still considered their marriage intact despite the separation.
Turner decided not to continue the relationship, and Douglas returned to Diandra. He writes that concern for Cameron influenced his decision, although he now believes the reconciliation did not repair the problems in the marriage.
Turner had already described part of that encounter years before Douglas confirmed the romance. In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, she said she thought she and Douglas “might have been falling in love” before Diandra arrived in Mexico.
When asked then how close she and Douglas had come to dating, Turner declined to elaborate.
They Continued Working Together After the Relationship Ended
Douglas and Turner returned as Jack and Joan in The Jewel of the Nile in 1985 and played a married couple destroying each other’s lives in the 1989 black comedy The War of the Roses.
Their professional relationship was not always seamless. Turner initially resisted making The Jewel of the Nile, leading 20th Century Fox to pursue a breach-of-contract case before she ultimately returned.
Douglas writes that working with Turner on the sequel’s script helped repair their friendship after the romance ended.
More than three decades later, Turner joined Douglas on the third season of Netflix’s The Kominsky Method. During a 2021 interview with PEOPLE, the pair discussed their long friendship and working together again while still maintaining that their original attraction had never become a physical relationship.
Douglas Asked Turner Before Putting Their Story in His Memoir
Douglas says he did not publish the revelation without first speaking to Turner.
He asked for her permission to include their relationship in One Helluva Ride, which Grand Central Publishing will release on Oct. 6. The publisher describes the memoir as Douglas’s account of both his Hollywood career and the personal relationships and struggles that accompanied it.
Entertainment Weekly reported Turner’s response after the excerpt became public. She dismissed the renewed attention surrounding something that happened four decades ago and said she still loves Douglas.