Michael Douglas hits back at questions about sex: “I have never been an addict”

Michael Douglas has reacted sharply to old claims that he had been addicted to sex, also denying that his new memoir is filled with sex stories.

During an interview for “The Sunday Times”, the actor was confronted with questions about his intimate life and the rumours that have followed him for decades.

When the journalist told him that his forthcoming book, “One Helluva Ride”, was “full of sex”, Douglas objected.

The actor said that in the book he mentions only “a few” of his partners, while he also disputed the claim that he had had relationships with five women before deciding to be exclusively with his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

“No, no, it wasn’t like that,” he replied.

Douglas explained that it was Catherine herself who set the condition for the relationship to continue.

“Catherine said: ‘If we are going to continue, then I want it to be monogamous’. And so, that evening, I phoned a few people I had been seeing, and that was it,” the actor recounted.

When the journalist asked him about the large number of women he had had relationships with during his life, Douglas replied that he did not see it that way.

“No, not me. I was simply a healthy product of the ’60s,” he said, before criticising the British media for their continuing interest in the sex lives of famous people.

Douglas also denied one of the best-known rumours about him. For years it has been reported that the actor went into rehab in the ’90s because of an addiction to sex.

According to him, that claim has never been true.

“An editor of a British tabloid invented this story. Thank you very much — here we are talking about it even at the age of 82. That’s what happens with tabloids. It was not true,” Douglas declared.

In his memoir, the actor is said to categorically deny this label, stressing that he “has never been addicted to sex”.

Nevertheless, in the book Douglas admits to a secret relationship with the actress Kathleen Turner, with whom he starred in the film “Romancing the Stone” in 1984. They kept their relationship secret for about 40 years.

Douglas has described that story as a “magic” and as something more than a passing fling.