The Kathleen Turner affair story has a new chapter: Turner is brushing off the uproar over Michael Douglas confirming that the two had a romance while making “Romancing the Stone.” “Good heavens, what a fuss about something that happened 40 years ago!” Turner said in a statement to People. “I love Michael, and I look forward to enjoying the book.”
Table of Contents
Kathleen Turner Affair: What Douglas Wrote
Douglas, 82, addresses the relationship in his memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” due out Oct. 6, according to Fox News. He writes that he and Turner were “immediately attracted to each other” while filming the 1984 adventure film and that they “fell hard for each other and began a relationship.” He describes Turner as “smart, funny, and sexy.”
For roughly 40 years, both stars had described their on-screen chemistry in public while denying they acted on it, Fox News reported. Douglas now writes that “things at home were in a bad place” when he met Turner and that, like “every other guy in the world at the time,” he was “knocked sideways” by her. The memoir’s account is the first time he has confirmed the relationship himself.
Douglas also says the pair kept it from nearly everyone on the project. According to Extra, he writes that director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito were unaware, and that he would “sneak into her hotel room after everybody was asleep.” He insists it was not a brief fling: “It wasn’t a fly-by night affair; it grew naturally from how closely we were working together.”
How the Relationship Ended
Douglas wrote that the romance ended during production in Mexico, when his then-wife, Diandra Luker, brought their son, Cameron, to the set. He said the visit broke “the magic spell of the set” and that Luker made clear to Turner that she and Douglas were still married. “This gave Kathleen pause. She didn’t want to interfere,” he wrote.
Douglas went back to his marriage. “I did it for Cameron, but we shouldn’t have gotten back together,” he wrote, according to Extra. Douglas and Luker divorced in 2000, and he has been married to Catherine Zeta-Jones since that year.
Turner’s Earlier Comments on Douglas
Turner, 72, has long been coy about how close the co-stars got. In 2021, she told the Los Angeles Times she had “certainly had a crush” on Douglas. In a separate interview that year, she told People, “Oh, I was yearning, babe, but he was still married,” and described “wonderful sexual tension” between them. Asked in 2023 how close they got while filming, she replied, “None of your business.”
About the Film Behind the Kathleen Turner Affair Story
“Romancing the Stone” opened in the United States on March 30, 1984, and was directed by Zemeckis. Douglas, Turner and DeVito led the cast. Principal photography began July 11, 1983, with locations in Mexico and the United States, according to Wikipedia. The film grossed more than $115 million worldwide, and Turner won a Golden Globe for best actress in a musical or comedy. The trio reunited for the 1985 sequel, “The Jewel of the Nile,” though Zemeckis did not direct it.
Turner’s latest statement marks a shift from deflection to acceptance. For more on Hollywood relationships, read our report on the Michael Landon affair scandal or William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett’s 75-year romance. Fans of the film can also revisit five iconic action-adventure films from our archive.
