Michael Douglas, left, and Catherine Zeta-Jones arrive at the 15th Annual Movies for Grownups Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Feb. 8, 2016, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Rich Fury / Invision / AP
When they started dating: 1999
When Michael Douglas first met Catherine Zeta-Jones at the Deauville Film Festival in France, in 1998, Douglas said to her, “I want to father your children.” Fast-forward more than 20 years, and the pair are parents to a college-aged son, Dylan, and teenage daughter, Carys. Despite a public separation in 2013 to re-evaluate their relationship, as well as brushes with stage IV cancer (Douglas) and a bipolar disorder diagnosis (Zeta-Jones), the couple, who are 25 years apart, remain together.
Catherine Zeta-Jones on what you learn through the trials of marriage, including her own diagnosis with bipolar disorder: “You find out who you really are and who you are married to. You find things inside yourself you never imagined were there.”
Catherine Zeta-Jones on being real about long-term relationships: “It’s been great, but I think it’s just unfathomable to me that you would be with one person for 18 years, and things are not rosy every day. They’re just not.”
Michael Douglas on their time apart: “I think every couple has their difficult times. The only problem is, as you well know, we’re all in the public eye, and it tends to get a little more exposed than most.”