Douglas—reminiscent of the guilt his own father, screen legend Kirk Douglas, felt over the breakup of his first marriage when Michael was young—admitted on Today that he too had put career before family. "I've also confessed the fact that I was in rehab 20 years ago. So we had that issue, and as far as his mother was concerned, she was a very young mother when she had Cameron, and her skills were limited to such an extent. The other part, of course, is genes. I lost a brother [Eric Douglas] with an overdose four years ago. I have another brother who has been on the program for years."
The Fatal Attraction star wrote to the judge in a note asking for leniency, "I have some idea of the pressure of finding your own identity with a famous father...I do believe out of this adversity he will be a positive citizen. I don't want to see him break."
Eerily, soon Michael Douglas would be fighting for his own survival.
In the summer of 2010, the actor was diagnosed with what turned out to be stage-four tongue cancer—a revelation he was reluctant to make at the time, so he initially had his publicist say throat cancer. He also may not have wanted to say anything at all, but he was about to go to Europe to promote Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps when he got the news.
"There's no way we can cancel the tour and say we don't feel well," Douglas later said on the U.K. talk show This Morning. "I said, 'You've just got to come out and just tell them I've got cancer and that's it.'"
He immediately embarked on a course of radiation and chemotherapy and he expressed nothing but optimism publicly, but his treatment did postpone production on the years-in-the-making Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra (which, eventually, Douglas would win an Emmy and a Golden Globe for and find increasingly creative ways to thank co-star Matt Damon). Douglas has since jovially said that the cancer diagnosis gave him an extra year to sharpen his piano skills and perfect Liberace's cadence and mannerisms.
Zeta-Jones, who as one of many actresses to win an Oscar for a Harvey Weinstein-produced film had to reckon with her past association with him as the #MeToo movement gained steam, said Douglas reassured her and the kids by "telling us that there is no story here and that time will tell. And, of course, it did. There was nothing to back it up at all. For any accusation that comes out that isn't backed up, that knocks the movement back 20 years."
And she's proved that she isn't the type to cut and run when the going gets tough.
"God knows we've had ups and downs in our marriage, but I don't throw the towel in very quickly on anything," she told the Times. "I'm not that person."
It also doesn't sound as though that even crossed her mind.
"First of all, we're best friends. We're literally best friends," Zeta-Jones told E! News during the Queen America junket last year. They relish being nice to other people, even those who aren't so nice to them, and "we have a mantra," she added. "We have to remind ourselves," she mimed pointing to another person, "you're my best friend, my lover, my partner, this is where we should be spending our time, being kind."
Hollywood is still all in on its relationship with Douglas, too, and earlier this year he won a Golden Globe for lead actor in a comedy series for The Kominsky Method on Netflix, which returns for a second season Oct. 25. He made sure to thank his "extraordinary, wonderful wife, Catherine, who's here with me tonight, I love so much."
The couple, who share a Sept. 25 birthday and this year dual milestones—50 for her and 75 for him—were also in fine form at the Emmys this past weekend. Douglas lost to Barry star Bill Hader but had the honor of presenting Outstanding Drama Series, after which he closed the whole show.
And really, he had already won before he even stepped foot on the red carpet. "We're off to the Emmys," Zeta-Jones said in a video she shot in the car on the way. "But I'm off with this fabulous nominee." She captioned it, "Congrats to my hubby on his nomination tonight. Love you so."