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Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Harsh Ultimatum to Michael Douglas Revealed

The Oscar-winning actor had just ended a 23-year marriage.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Opening ceremony and screening of the film "Jeanne du Barry" Out of competition - Red Carpet arrivals - Cannes, France, May 16, 2023. Catherine Zeta-Jones kisses Michael Douglas as they pose. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERS

Catherine Zeta-Jones gave her husband an ultimatum when they first got together.

The Mask of Zorro star, 57, told her then-boyfriend Michael Douglas he had to stop dating other women because he had been “seeing some other people at the time” that he met her, the Fatal Attraction star revealed.

“When I courted Catherine, she told me, ‘If we are doing this, you need to clean your act up,’” he said on The Graham Norton Show on Friday.

Catherine Zeta-Jones poses on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 14, 2025.

Catherine Zeta-Jones laid down the law.

DANIEL COLE/REUTERS/Daniel Cole

The Basic Instinct actor, 82, then revealed that he “had to call five women to break things off.”

During the BBC couch show, he also let slip that “It was very easy to get comfortable with co-stars and sometimes that got carried away.”

It’s not the first time he’s discussed the matter.

He revealed in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, that after ending his 23-year marriage to his first wife, Diandra Luker, he had five relationships with five women in five different cities.

Formula One F1 - Miami Grand Prix - Miami International Autodrome, Miami, Florida, United States - May 3, 2025  Actor Michael Douglas talks to the media before qualifying Pool via REUTERS/Shawn Thew

He said he had to make five phone calls.

SHAWN THEW/Pool via REUTERS

Despite his non-monogamous approach in the other relationships, Douglas said that Zeta-Jones told him that she wouldn’t date him unless they were monogamous. They met at the Deauville American Film Festival in France.

“That day, I called each one to say I’d met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them,” he wrote. “They all took it well.”

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They married two years later at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

“I love Catherine in a way that I have never loved any other woman,” he wrote. “She’s my wife, my best friend, and my life partner. I could never lose her.”

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