Michael Douglas recalls competing with late Kobe Bryant for Catherine Zeta-Jones' attention
Michael Douglas claims he and Kobe Bryant battled it out to win the affection of his now-wife Catherine Zeta-Jones at the start of their relationship, but that a dog became the start of a ‘what-if’ situation between the pair.
The Fatal Attraction actor has been dropping bombshell after bombshell in his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, but this time it involves the late NBA star.
After the pair, who have now been together for almost 30 years, met at the Deaville American Film Festival in France in 1998, their romance was met with an obstacle not many could survive – 2795 miles.
“She was smart, funny, unpretentious, and, yes, breathtakingly beautiful. She just seemed so confident and self-assured, too,” Douglas wrote of their meeting.
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But Douglas lived in New York, while Zeta-Jones was in Pacific Palisades, and happened to live below none other than Kobe Byrant.
Douglas wrote that the athlete was enamored by his wife, three years before he’d go on to marry Vaness Laine in 2001.
“Apparently Kobe kept finding excuses to stop by Catherine’s house,” Douglas said, adding: “I’m not sure how many times he ‘lost his dog’ but it was a lot!”
Douglas, 82, and Zeta-Jones, 57, went on to get engaged on New Year’s Eve in 1999 before marrying just one year later at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Zeta-Jones is mentioned throughout his book, and in one section, Douglas claimed he fell for her after watching her hit 1998 movie, The Mask of Zorro.
Douglas also looked back on the couple’s brief 2013 split, admitting that he “never gave up hope” that they’d reconcile.
Kobe and Vanessa were married until his death, which was caused by a tragic helicopter crash in January 2020.
Sadly, their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was also killed in the accident.
Zeta-Jones shared a tribute after the news broke of his death, where she shared that she was able to watch the NBA star’s ‘talent’ from her window.
“We met the day he moved in through his dog, that started to, and continued to wander in to my garden,” she wrote online. “His basketball court was my view. I watched his talent and dedication, yet how could I have known that he was to become what he became.”
While Douglas has shared his love for his wife in his tell-all, he also reveals more information about other women he has been involved with, including the way he chose to spend his time after his divorce from his first wife, Diandra Douglas, whom he split from in 1995.
He wrote that he had been seeing five other women, and none of them wanted anything serious with him.
"I made sure they all lived in different cities, which felt like a respectful way to be non-monogamous,' he wrote, adding: "None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to. I am sure they were seeing other people, too.”
His answer to Zeta-Jones was apparently to wait a little bit because he had 'five quick calls' to make.
He claimed she replied to him: "Five? You have to make five calls?"
Douglas wrote that he made those calls that day and the rest is history.
"That day, I called each one to say I met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them. They all took it well," he added.
Topics: Kobe Bryant, Celebrity
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