They have been married for twenty years, have been through a marital crisis but are now more united than ever. He’s still a heartthrob at seventy-six, Michael Douglas. And her, Catherine Zeta-Jones, fifty-one, considered among the most beautiful actresses in the world, has been spacing her appearances on the screen “because I’m tired of being always given the roles of a hottie.”
Michael Douglas was married to Diandra Luker when he fell in love with Catherine Zeta-Jones. I had seen her in her first movie, Revenge of Zorro Y he asked Antonio Banderas, the protagonist, to introduce it to him. They met at the Deauville American Film Festival. Face to face, Michael, without taking his eyes off her, snapped at her: “I want to be the father of your childrenShe winced and turned her back on him. Douglas realized he had screwed up. He sent her several bouquets of flowers. It was the year 1998. They shared several dates. He invited her to spend a romantic vacation in his spectacular mansion de Mallorca, until November 18, 2000, when they said “yes, I want to.”
Catherine was born in Wales. His father worked in a candy factory and his mother was a dressmaker. Even as a child she liked to act. Her parents registered her in a dance school. At school she was the protagonist of Annie. At the age of fifteen he moved to London. He got some theatrical roles and in television series. He was eighteen when he had to undergo a tracheostomy operation. He was about to lose his life. A scar on her neck remained forever, which she still conceals with appropriate make-up. Now recovered, she made the leap to Hollywood in her desire to become a movie star.
By the time she met Michael Douglas, she had already been through the harsh trance of young girls who are harassed by movie people with the lure of offering them a contract. Catherine assures that she never fell into the networks of those who take advantage of such aspirants. And when it was known in the filming studios that she was Douglas’s new girlfriend, no one bothered her: “I thank him that he had no problems in that regard.”
The beauty and photogenicity of Catherine Zeta-Jones (who owes her surnames to those of her two grandmothers) were decisive so that after The mask of Zorro –where she made a very good friendship with Antonio Banderas- she was hired in The trap, with Sean Connery, in 1999, then in Traffic, in 2000 and in Chicago, 2002, whose work provided him with a Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Musicals like the latter cited have always been his favorites.
She was thirty-one years old when she married Michael Douglas. They had two children, Dylan the Carys. She also had to take care of the son Michael had with his previous wife, who went to jail for his relationship with drugs. Everything was going well in the couple. But in August 2013 they parted ways. The news surprised the film world, where they were regarded as an exemplary marriage. What happened? Catherine accused a strange behavior that Michael could not understand. Until she was admitted to a clinic where she was diagnosed with a Bipolar disorder. After four months the two reconciled in January 2014 and it is said they went to a Mallorcan synagogue to renew their wedding vows. The twenty-five year difference between the two has never been grounds for dissent of any kind.
Michael and Catherine are rich. They have valuable properties. In Wales (where she travels frequently to see her mother), Los Angeles, Vancouver … They have just sold their luxurious residence in New York, which pretended to be a 12th century castle in Central Park West, which has brought them twenty-one million and half dollars. Michael also wanted to get rid of his Mallorcan mansion, which belonged to Archduke Luís Salvador of Austria. He wanted to get fifty million dollars, then he lowered the offer to thirty, but when he could not find a reliable buyer, he decided to keep it. Many summers he enjoys with Catherine and the boys. They usually give a party, to which characters from the island join.
The cinematographic activity of both has decreased. And since they are not pressed either for money or to maintain their prestige as actors, they monitor their respective businesses. Catherine’s is a beauty products company. During the months of confinement, the family has been very close. And Catherine intervened in a series, Prodigal son, in the character of a maddened doctor.
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