USA TODAY International Edition
GOOD TIMES AND BAD
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta- Jones were that rare breed: an Oscar- winning Hollywood union. Here’s a look at five of their marriage milestones, both crowning and challenging:
MARRIAGE
Born 25 years apart on Sept. 25, the actors made their year- long romance official on Nov. 18, 2000.
KIDS
Zeta- Jones famously said that when she met her future husband, he wooed her with the line “I want to father your children.” Douglas didn’t disappoint: Son Dylan Michael was born Aug. 8, 2000, and daughter Carys Zeta was born April 20, 2003.
HIS DIAGNOSIS
In August 2010, Douglas, then 65, announced he had stage 4 throat cancer. The following January, he said he was cancer- free. At the time, he pointed to smoking, alcohol abuse and stress as the triggers for his illness. But this past June, he told a reporter that his type of cancer was caused by HPV. His publicist later clarified that Douglas was speaking generally, not about his illness specifically.
HER DIAGNOSIS
In April 2011, Zeta- Jones checked into a mental health facility in Connecticut to be treated for bipolar II disorder. She sought treatment again this past April with the goal of better managing her medication for her condition, which causes sharp mood swings and dangerous depression.
HIS SON’S INCARCERATION
After multiple drug- related arrests, Cameron Douglas, Michael’s 34- year- old son with his first wife, Diandra, was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2010 for possessing heroin and dealing methamphetamine and cocaine. The next year, his sentence was extended to 10 years, after he pleaded guilty to drug possession while incarcerated. During the ordeal, Michael Douglas acknowledged that he had been “a bad father.”