Michael Douglas (82) Bristles at Sex Addiction Rumors and Asks Why the British Press Is So Obsessed With Sex

Michael Douglas has been making headlines all week, and his memoir hasn’t even hit shelves yet. The 82-year-old Oscar winner’s ‘One Helluva Ride’ arrives on Tuesday, October 6, and early excerpts have already sparked plenty of conversation.

The biggest bombshell so far came from his revelation that he had a romance with Kathleen Turner while filming ‘Romancing the Stone’ in the 1980s. The book also offers candid stories about his relationships and past struggles, so it was only a matter of time before interviewers started asking about his love life.

That moment arrived in a tense new interview with The Sunday Times. Speaking with the paper’s chief interviewer, Decca Aitkenhead, Douglas pushed back hard against the idea that his memoir is full of sex, denied a decades-old rumor that he was a sex addict and questioned why the British press is so fixated on the subject.

Aitkenhead asked why Douglas, now in his 80s, wanted to share so many intimate details with the world. When she suggested the book was full of sexual encounters, the actor disagreed and said he didn’t feel that way, noting that he only mentions a couple of partners.

The conversation grew testier from there. When Aitkenhead asked whether he had ever wondered why he slept with so many women, Douglas said he didn’t see it that way and described himself as a healthy product of the 1960s.

He then turned the question back on her. According to Aitkenhead, Douglas narrowed his eyes and took on an accusatory tone as he asked why, of all the countries where he does press, the British are so consumed with the topic of sex.

Douglas was especially firm about the sex addiction rumor that has followed him for decades. He said a British tabloid editor invented the story, adding with obvious frustration that he was still discussing it at 82, and insisted it was never true.

British tabloids first claimed in 1992 that Douglas had gone to rehab for sex addiction after he checked into the Sierra Tucson clinic in Arizona that same year. Back in 1994, he told The Washington Post that he had actually entered rehab for overwork and alcohol abuse.

He addresses the rumor in ‘One Helluva Ride’ as well. In the book, he writes emphatically that he was never a sex addict. The interview also revisited a story from the memoir about the beginning of his relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Aitkenhead reminded him that he wrote about having to break things off with 5 women before committing to her.

Douglas insisted that wasn’t quite how it happened. He explained that Zeta-Jones told him that if they were going to continue, she wanted the relationship to be monogamous, so that same evening he called the people he had been seeing and ended things.

The couple married in 2000, shortly after the end of his first marriage to Diandra Luker, and recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Douglas admitted they have had their problems but said he loves her dearly, adding that marriage takes a lot of work and that they are in good shape.

As for whether Zeta-Jones was nervous about the memoir’s release, Douglas offered a simple answer. He said she hasn’t read it. With ‘One Helluva Ride’ now arriving in stores, readers will finally be able to judge the book for themselves. Between the Turner revelation and this fiery interview, it’s clear Douglas is ready to tell his story his own way, even if he doesn’t always like the questions that come with it.

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